5 comments about Options:Essential Concepts, 3rd Edition.

1. This book presents a highly readable overview of the subject of options and I would recommend it to anyone. I have not been able to find one book on options which is as wide ranging in its scope (i.e., history, pricing, strategy, individual and institutional investors' approaches, how the trading floor operates, how market makers trade, etc.). The authors have struck a good balance between depth of the subject matter and readability. There are more detailed texts available in the area of strategy (McMillan's _Options as a Strategic Investment_) or pricing (Natenberg's _Option Volatility and Pricing_), but I would especially recommend this book to individual investors interested in options. After reading this book they will have a much stronger footing from which to approach the forementioned other books (which are also excellent, by the way).

   The previous reviewer's comments should be disregarded as I cannot conceive of anyone writing about this subject matter any more clearly (yes, I have read both of Fontanills' books) -- the authors appear to have put much effort into this book judging by its clarity, and one nitwit's daffy comments should not dissuade you!




2. Wow, amazing, excellent, insufficient superlatives to describe my feelings - this one and Sheldon Nattenberg's Option Volatility and Pricing and you know more than most of the wall street professionals in my opinion. I found it practical and insightful, particularly with respect to the institutional trading strategies and how the trading floors operate.



3. This book is somewhat like 'A Random Walk Down Wallstreet" only applies to option trading, not just Wall Street and goes beyond.To the nit wit that blasted this book, I seriously doubt if he took the time to read it.I also recommend Safety First Investing and Wall Street Money Machine for more option techniques.Good books.



4. This is definitely not an easy reading book. It's essentially a dry college textbook, drier then most Physics textbooks. I am not too sure why people like this book. It's rated fairly high, which was why I initially bought it, but now I regret it. The book is written by multiple authors, therefore some chapters are better then others. But overall it's difficult to read because in some areas, the descriptions are too terse, in others too detailed to the point of confusing. I've owned this book for almost three years and I've never been able to consistently read through it. I will drop it because it's too frustrating. Then I try again a couple of months later and I drop it again. I essentially gave up and decided to go ahead and read Lawrence McMillan's Option book. His book has a better flow because it's the same author throughout, and he does a pretty good job of explaining the subject. This book is only good for probably a reference book, but not for advancing your techniques of Options trading. I am going to try and sell this book instead of using it as a reference.



5. This is a good introductory book on options.
   Pros: comprehensive coverage of a subject,fairly easy to read and understand for a beginner in options.
   Cons: the same concepts explained multiple times in different parts of the book. That's probably because chapters are written by different people. For example, look at put-call parity or covered call in the index. It's not a reference book. A short chapter summarizing option trading strategies in one place is clearly missing.

5 comments about The Compleat Day Trader: Trading Systems, Strategies, Timing Indicators and Analytical Methods.

1. One of the most difficult things involving the markets, regardless of what you trade is timing.With this book, Jake not only gives you suggestions for timing indicators, but he also gives you some strategies to follow and shows real time examples which are clear and very detailed. In this book, Jake share his extensive knowledge about systems, strategies, technical indicators, and trading systems. I have purchased many trading books and this one is CRITICAL for your success as a trader. One more point that I wish for potential traders to consider is the source. Jake Bernstein has been involved in commodities and futures trading for 25 years. He brings real trading experience to the table. He does not promise you guaranteed results are a "pot of gold" under the rainbow. What he does give you is the information that you will need to be successful, REGARDLESS of the time frame you are trading. Also, he is available for you. I recently e-mailed him with a question from the book and I received a detailed explanation from him the very next day! I challenge you to find any author who will do that! Good luck and good trading!



2. Most books for "day traders" are so general that their techniques and advice can be successfully used by swing-traders (those who keep stocks for several days), and even by longer-term investors. This one is different. The author, Jake Bernstein, strongly advocates real day trading, when no securities ever kept overnight. Therefore, his techniques are usable for very short term trading only.

   The advantage of this book is that it has very little general rhetoric and comes straight to the point, that is to the techniques which the author finds profitable. Basically, 90% of the book is about the use of technical indicators (such as various moving averages and oscillators) to determine potentially profitable entry and exit points. The topics discussed in particular detailed manner are the use of moving averages, stochastic indicator, moving average channel (MAC), relative strength index (RSI), momentum, and techniques for trading of opening gaps. The author also suggests several oscillators of his own. However, despite the simplicity of these indicators, one has to own software such as Omega Research Trade Station to calculate and plot these home-made oscillators in real time, or write a program yourself. There are also several chapters applicable to futures only (actually, the whole book is about trading in the futures market, but 95% of techniques are equally applicable to stocks).

   The great advantage of the book is that it is very specific, clearly illustrated, and gives plenty of detailed technical advice and a number of potentially profitable trading techniques. Be advised, however, that those who are interested in trading but do not have enough capital to take profits from half-a-tick changes (and I, too, belong to this group) cannot really take advantage of this book. No trend and no trade longer than a few hours is discussed there! Therefore, this book is for the serious day traders, and only for them. If you are a day trader, this book is a must; if you are not, do not bother buying it but rather consider other options, e.g., the excellent book "How to get started in electronic day trading" by D.S.Nassar which is good for traders on any time frame.




3. Trading especially short term trading need great concentration and a full-time commitment. Professional traders write few or no book.

   Mr. Bernstein's books and articles are everywhere. Sometimes I came across his publications, I scanned through a few pages to see what he had to say about trading. Mr. Bernstein makes statements which are generally safe and easy to say. For example, I read his article the other day. He tells the readers "Do your homework.", "The trend is your friend." etc. Of course, these are the common rules for traders. But what are the concrete steps to implement these rules in the real-life situation? Well, I could hardly find any. On the other hand, he stated in that article: "...I maintain that a good trader can make any system works." I found this statement unprofessional and phony. The reasons:

   1. Many systems on the market are just trash and can not be used at all.

   2. Good traders wouldn't pick up any system and risk their money with it. Good traders are very selective and only trade a few systems that have proven record and are suitable for their individual styles.

   I found similar problems in other works by Mr. Bernstein. Should I bother to buy this book? No, thanks.

   I have read books from many different writers and have more than 10 year active trading experience. So I know something.

   A few tips(IMO) for choosing good books on trading:

   1. Only a small percentage of books on the market are good or great.

   2. Popular books are not necessary good books. If you automatically think so, you've probably fallen into "Herd mentality" thinking.

   3. Trading is a bottom line business. Find books written by traders who had proven long-term(5 year or more) successful trading records. They are the ones "know how".

   4. Be wary of the authors who write many trading books.

   Good luck.




4. Take my word for it and save your money, the techniques in this book simply do not work!



5. The book is good if you want to depend on technical strategies to make money day trading.
   
   The stock market is always presenting us with trading opportunities that don't neccesarily have to do anything with technical analisys.
   
   As a day trader your homework is all about studying and testing different market strategies that will help you take advantage of stocks and at the same time protect your investments. Just always keep in mind that a good strategy is simple and practical. Complicated technical systems will always make you slow in your decision making process or confuse you right from the start.
   
   There are very good sites on the web where you can access practical trading strategies that are easy to implement. One of those sites is Stress Free Traders ( StressFreeTraders com)
   
   They focus on short term day trading strategies that can help you pick and approach momentum stocks while reducing your trading risk.
   
   All in all, day trading is all about picking the best stock opportunities and deciding when to buy and when to sell with ease and simplicity. Once you learn to master your trading decisions, you can aspire to obtain consistent profitable results.

5 comments about The Compleat Day Trader II (Compleat Day Trader).

1. Having read many books on Day Trading and attended courses and seminars, this book added "confidence". It gives you simple systems to work with, 30MBO, InsideDays, Gaps, etc.. It also tells you what the indicators lack and what most traders lack to succeed, discipline. Use the 30MBO but don't change the method. Stick to it. Be disciplined. Aimed at the futures and commodities traders, these methods also work with fast high volume, high votility stocks. I emailed Jake with a question on the 30MBO and got a reply in hours, that's value. I have ordered his next book, "The Complete Guide to Day Trading Stock". Can't wait. I cannot see how anyone (who is not a beginner) would not benefit from this book.



2. Reading this book is purely a watse of your time. Buying it is absolutely waste of your money.

   The only thing you can learn from it is that the author probably makes more money by selling hot topic books than from trading.




3. Mr. Bernstein writes a book almost every month. He certainly is a prolific writer--my question is when does he have time to trade??



4. I feel that Day Tader II is really a rip-off as it basically just reguritates most of the material found in volume one. THIS is typical Bernstein -- the goal is dollars from book sales, not educating the reader. Mr. Bernstein does not respect his readers, and this is the sad part because he obviously is a highly intelligent man who probably could contribute a lot to the field of daytrading education if he weren't so needy and greedy. I wouldn't go so far as to call him "Jake the Snake", but I do think he should put more care into the content of his books.



5. Save your money. Never, never waste your funds on the drivel this author produces!!
   
   A profitable trader would never have time enough to write even one tenth the quantity of words this person produces.
   
   Find traders that actually make money to learn from. There are a few that have written good books.
   
   As starting points:
   For equities traders try: Professional Stock Trading
   For futures traders try: Trading Day by Day
   
   These are simply starting points, but are written by REAL traders, not worthless-book producers.

5 comments about What Works in Online Day Trading.

1. This is an eclectic book. It doesn't focus on a major theme and is a collection of different people's views plus the author's.

   I would not recommend this book for beginners who want to learn the basics because I don't feel the foundation is thorough.

   It is a good book for those who want to see how others trade, their diverse techniques, and their opinions on trading. Also of value are the risk management techniques.

   A more appropriate title would be: Different techniques by various traders and other trading tips.




2. I have read many "trading" books, and find this one a pleasant suprise. Section Two includes a good source of trading strategies that work, each one written by people who actually trade. Strategies covered include 1) pure price action by Gary Smith, 2) breakouts by Mark Seleznov, 3) seasonals by Steve Moore, et.al., 4) patterns by Mark Etzkorn, 4) springs and upthrusts by Hank Pruden, 5) Bow Tie patterns by Dave Landry, and a few others.

   The strategies include a good summary of setups, entries, stops, and exits. These summaries are general enought that you can program them in most any backtest software you use, not just Tradestation or C++. I use them to backtest with TC2000 and TC Companion.

   The book also has very good information on risk mangement, the mechanics of trading and the mindset of different trading styles.

   The great thing about this book, is that it is a well integrated compilation of tools and techniques from a variety of well known and/or highly successful traders. The editor did a wonderful job of taking this diverse group and integrating the book into a very logical and usable flow.

   While it may be too much for the pure beginner, this book will be most appreciated by the intermediate to advanced trader.




3. This is not your ordinary trading book, but one that teaches some real "usable" techniques. The book is broken up into chapters written by different people, so the tone of voice will change frequently. The prize of this book is the Seleznov breakout method, which anyone can use to trade profitably for life. That alone is worth thousands of times the price of this book. I'd recommend this for any serious amateur/semi-pro level short term trader who may be lacking a consistent trading system.



4. I decided to give this book a chance in providing me essential elements of a typical intraday technical trading system. Sure I wasn't expecting a copy-paste daytrade system that suits everyone.. if there ever was one...
   It's just, if you're starting out in daytrading (asuming you've been doing numerous of position & swing trades) looking for honest information, this book does the job. Eclectic but essential and honest. The actual job of creating a profitable system, simple or complex, still is yours.. .



5. This book has strong and weak chapters and average usability. It consist of a mixture of good advice: "Nervous money tends to become some elses money", long and tideous explanations on online technology, lame explanations about charts: "The vertical (Y) axis shows the price level, and the horisontal (X) axis shows time"...if you did not know this or could not figure it out yourself, you should nok trade at all. Stronger chapters looked at risk control & money management and some interesting interviws with for example Linda Bradford Raschke. The money management section helped me a lot and if you have not figured out that theme yet I would buy this book only to read those 42 pages.

5 comments about Covered Call Writing Demystified: Double-Digit Returns on Stocks in a Slower Growth Market for the Conservative Investor.

1. I am a professional trader, in other words I have been making a living exclusively trading stocks and options for the past few years.
   My experience has been that covered call strategy is low risk only if you have the right timing techniques to alert you to reversals. Unfortunately this book lacks in that area.
   Let us take the example where you get a $1 premium on a $20 stock by selling a covered call say at a $20 strike. It is true that if the stock declines to $15 you lose $4. If on the other hand you had the timing techniques that could alert you to a reversal , you should have bought the $20 strike call back with say the stock at $19 for $0.25 making a $0.75 profit and sold a $15 strike call for $4+ which you can then close for a profit when the stock goes to $15. Waiting for the option to expire is not always the right strategy. The issue is how can you tell if there is a pending reversal and this is where timing is critical . Using these strategies you can indeed achieve double digit returns just by taking advantage of the stock short term movements.
   While this book is a good introduction;to get the most benefit from this book you need to supplement it with another that focuses more on timing.



2. Too simple. Explain simple points in length boring stories. It wastes my money and time.



3. I generally will not trash a book that is targeted at the novice but this will be an exception. First, I am a novice at options investing so should have been right in the middle of the target market for this book. Fact is, I learned more just searching the Internet while I was waiting for the book to arrive than I learned from the book. It is just too simplistic. All the knowledge contained in this book could have been conveyed in a 20 page pamphlet rather than this 300+ page puff piece with its wide margins and large fonts. A true disappointment.



4. The author does a good job of conveying the material is a simplistic manner. Knowledge and experiance with buying and selling stock is definitely a prerequisite. I learned many useful tools in determining the right stock to sell calls on while meeting my risk level.
   
   I recommend this book to those who are just getting start with covered call writing.



5. Very dissapointing. I don't know if this book is a novel or an investment book...It's just like reading a story book... It's a joke....I almost got nothing from this book...Nothing about the covered call detailed in this book.
   
   A good investment book on covered call should consist minimum: How to choose a good stock, how to choose a good strike price, how to pick an expiration date, and most importantly how to manage your position if the market goes against you. You will not get these topics in this book...

1 comments about Stocks, Options & Spreads.

1. This is an excellent summary of the approaches the author used in the early to mid 90's, using a straight-forward means of trend analysis. It is simple to grasp, and many examples are given as means of demonstrating the strategy. It is applicable to the markets now, which is a good test of robustness.
   
   The investment tools available now over the internet make it easier than ever before to self-direct many investments, and this guide is very helpful in this regard. It will prove profitable ONCE you have the confidence of "pulling the trigger" (e.g., actually putting on the trade, which no one else can do for you.
   
   Best of luck in all of your investing endeavors.

1 comments about The Easy Beginner's Guide to Trading Options Online.

1. I thought the book was a helpful guide for learning about options trading. I liked the trade examples. The book was kind of short but considering the price of most option books, I thought it was a good buy.

No comments about The Best of the Professional Traders Jour Options Trading and Volatility Trading.

5 comments about Covered Calls and Naked Puts: Create Your Own Stock Options Money Tree.

1. The writing style detracts form the otherwise good explanation of what options are and the recommended techniques.



2. Overall I would recommend this book if you are new to covered calls and naked puts and want to gain a basic understanding of how they work. While income can be generated selling options a good stock picking strategy is a must if you are going to be successful. With that said I wouldn't necessarily recommend the stock picking technique that is outlined in the book. I also found it extremely annoying that the author constantly plugged his software package.



3. I trade lots of stocks and options, I disagree with the authors method of selecting stocks to trade but his concept is right on the money. I have been trading for 25 years and the simple covered call, naked put strategy is the backbone of my successful trading program. I have about 20 stocks in my "stable" that I am comfortanle with and apply the books methods to those stocks (because I know the personalities of these stocks). The story line in the book is pure cheese but the concept is excellent, I recommend the book as a way to get into a stock cheaply (naked puts) or enhance your returns (covered calls).



4. This book is good for improving your speed reading skills as you scan the trite "story" for any useful nuggets. About 15% of the verbiage has anything to do with options. The rest is sophomoric prose representing the characters' acquisition of the keys to consistent 28% returns from the professor, which you too can obtain buy purchasing his simple software.
   
   The testimonials on the back suggesting the text could serve as an "academic supplement to hedging financial instruments" are especially ludicrous.



5. I have ordered twice of these books, but I have not received them yet for some reasons. Please check it for me about my order. Thanks

1 comments about Trading and Hedging with Agricultural Futures and Options.

1. I had great expectations of this book and thought that it would be a good primer to understanding ags futures, their behaviour & ideas (seasonality, calendar spreads, etc) on how to exploit them. However, it is more the traditional academic introduction on how to hedge ags futures, and the knowledge is very similar to any other options book. It is a good book for beginners & has some interesting intermediate strategies to explore. Well written but as an advanced options user, it adds little to persons who already knows futures & options in depth.