5 comments about Global Convertible Investing: The Gabelli Way.

1. Hart Woodson has put together an easy to understand guide to convertibles. The book covers all aspects for hedge funds to outright purchasers of the product on a global basis. In depth enough for the seasoned professional and yet basic enough for those trying to understand convertibles for the first time.



2. This book is a fantastic resource for investors who are new to convertibles, convertible experts and everyone in between. It provides a great breadth of topics as well as a perfect amount of depth. It covers the full range of convertible products, the theory behind them and convertible investing strategies. I'll be keeping this book handy.



3. A must read for anyone interested in a clear and consise review of all the relevant information regarding this timely topic. Mr. Woodson demonstrates his precise and broad understanding of all the issues surrounding convertible investing, and presents such knowledge in a profounding easy to read fashion. This one shouldn't be missed. Clearly one of the authoritative sources out there!!



4. Quite a few books have been written about the specialized subject of convertible securities, but Hart Woodson has distinguished himself by writing a comprehensive book that includes all of the latest types of convertible securities as well as the latest strategies--in plain language that a beginner could comprehend, and with sophisticated equations included for the sophisticated quant. Better still, the book is not simply an ad for convertibles nor for his employer, Gabelli Asset Management. The pitfalls as well as the potentials are described. Hart can write. Hart has broad experience. He puts it all together in this practical book.



5. I am unsure what book the rest of the reviewers are reading; but it was not this one. The book is not only ambiguous, but poorly crafted with topical transitions sloppy. I can comfortably say that there is not a single section of the book that adequately unveils the dynamics of various convertible instruments or their pricing. Indeed, the book reads more like a glossary than an explanatory text and for persons new to converts, the spate of regurgitated pricing theories will likely do more harm then good. Perhaps the one strength of the text is that it serves as a broad reference for readers truly interested in converts to seek out more educative pieces. For more informed readers, modest incremental knowledge seems to be the only gain.

5 comments about TurnKey Investing with Lease-Options: How to Simply & Safely Create 12% Returns with Investment Property!.

1. I expected a lot more out of this book. Granted, this is about the only "book" out there that discusses lease-options but it still left a lot to be desired. Most "gurus" charge a lot more for their courses than you will spend on a book, but I still expected that this book would do a better job of explaining transactions and give better guidance. I hoped he would add something that can't be found on about any real estate investing website. Instead there is a lot of empty space on the pages and simple common ordinary advice that I could have got from my own mother (who knows nothing about real estate investing). There is very little meat and not a lot of good examples. Maybe he meant it to be that way as he says in one of the early chapters that it is not meant to be technical or all inclusive but is only written for practical guidance. I actually didn't find it of any practical help as no where does he say how he arrives at his option consideration. What is he looking for in an option? How much is enough? Does he give the tenant any credit from the rent payments? He doesn't say. If not, why not? I had a hard time figuring out his overall approach. Maybe he wants the reader to buy more of his products to find out. I really am bewildered by the book and get the feeling it is written so that you will buy more from his website.



2. If I were still working, I would be reading Turnkey Investing with Lease-Options as I would an excellent novel! Indeed, I was not only impressed with this book; I was amazed! The main reason for my careful review of this book was that I read it wearing two former hats. One was as the experienced lease manager for a land-grant university but, more importantly, the other as a young single professional woman who had entered into a lease-purchase arrangement when I decided to buy a condo many years ago.
   
   Even though I was already managing leased space for the university, when I decided to purchase a condo, I was not prepared for the trauma of having to face a major financial burden with no support. My mother was living with me at the time, but I knew the little money she provided would not continue through the life of the mortgage. Additionally, although I had been promoted on an ongoing basis, and expected another promotion in the near future, I had no savings or verification that I would be able to meet mortgage payments. Fortunately, my landlord wanted to get the last unit sold in this complex and offered to allow all rent payments to go toward an ultimate down payment on the actual purchase price.
   
   If you are in a similar situation-buy this book. It is not necessarily intended for the potential new property owner; however, it provides a lot of essential information you need to know as you consider this option. For instance, for years, I sat in my new condo with nothing on my walls, no pictures, and no decorations-because my landlord had told me this wasn't permitted. Such a little thing, but I grew to hate those bare walls and, finally, even though feeling guilty, pounded the first nail toward making that house a home! With this book, I would have been in a position to question and negotiate what I could have done in this place I intended to make my long-term home! Indeed, the acquisition of a home via lease option is based upon accepting a home, essentially as-is with the ability to improve and upgrade the building as if it were already owned.
   
   At the same time, even though this book is written for a specific geographical area, the philosophy, the management direction, and the presentation itself all provide an excellent learning tool for an individual who has been given any type of property management responsibility, no matter where that property is located. In addition to thoroughly describing lease-options, the book covers how to research the market, purchasing, preparing, marketing and finding the right tenants. The excellent ideas used herein can be easily translated for use in any type of real estate transactions.
   
   And, finally, if I were a potential real estate investor, not having already committed to my retirement plan, I would be in contact with Mr. Chan immediately! Why? This book shows exactly what I as an investor need to know to make the decision to consider real estate as an investment. And, what's more, he proves his claims with sufficient facts and figures that you can believe. That's a major accomplishment for those who are reticent to invest in anything that has some risk.
   
   Mr. Chan's book is perhaps one of the best written books of its type. Using the traditional training method, he first gives an outline of what he is going to explain and teach and then he repeats each item, both times providing specific details, but also anticipating any questions that might evolve based upon his presentation. You can tell immediately that the author speaks with authority, based upon knowledge and experience, readily confessing to trial-and-error issues.
   
   Mr. Chan opens his book with recommendations from those who are involved in considering investment options. By the time you finish the book, you will have gained a certain trust for the company and its team. However, assuming you are not in a position to invest directly with TurnKey Investing, this book provides sufficient details for you to learn about real estate investments. Specifically, the use of conventional financing through a bank, versus private financing, versus seller financing is explained. The author is open and quick to point out that the best financial gain is through the use of cash/private financing. However, the use of bank financing is also explained and the returns of each are explored thoroughly. For a potential real estate investor, Turnkey Investing is worth every penny of its purchase price.
   
   I think the real value of the book, however, is for those who are interested in getting into the real estate business using lease-options. Turnkey Investing defines a market and stays with it-specifically to serve the thousands, if not millions, of people across the United States who wish to own a home but are not able to gain financial backing through the normal process, especially in the early years of their adult lives. Lease-option is an important contribution in today's world of turmoil and insecurity. It provides a no-lose option to those who are now renting without any future return on those funds. At the same time, it provides an opportunity for houses to move faster on the market and a way by which a landlord or property manager can respond in a cost-effective as well as profitable manner.
   
   Finally, as a long-time planner and manager, I was most impressed with this company's use of Kaisen. This Japanese concept is the belief in making small, ongoing improvements to a business system. A review of their online activities which allows practically everything to be done online to apply for a home, the use of a hot-line as a means of dispensing valuable information and basic management decisions to expedite efficient use of their teams' time is a delight to see in practice! Even if you have absolutely no interest in real estate, if you are a planner or manager, study the book to absorb what can be learned from this efficient and effective team!
   
   The TurnKey Investor's Essential Lease-Option Lessons as well as CD audio programs and a Documents Collection supplement this book. However, this first book, TurnKey Investing with Lease-Options, easily stands alone as a major real estate manual. It's a Must Read for property managers, landlords interested in upgrading their activities, as well as real estate agents, lease managers and others who are interested in this major and profitable business!



3. With contributions by Wes Weaver, professional real estate investor and property manager Matthew S. Chan has creative "TurnKey Investing with Lease-Options: How To Simply & Safely create 12% Returns With Investment Property!" a comprehensive, "reader friendly", instructive introduction on creating, investing, and managing a profitable real estate portfolio utilizing Lease-Option. Readers will learn how Lease-Options work to simply and safely build an investment portfolio; how to generate steady, spendable cash flow through Lease-Options; finding the right real estate market to safely invest in for a reliable return; profitably manage properties while avoiding ongoing maintenance expenses eating into the bottom line; recruiting the right management team to build and guard a real estate based investment portfolio; even how to invest in a Lease Option investment strategy without the necessity of owning property. Superbly organized, informed and informative, Matthew Chan's "TurnKey Investing with Lease-Options" should be considered a mandatory study and on-going reference guide by anyone aspiring to make money consistently and reliably in today's volatile and competitive real estate market through the utilization of Lease-Option strategies.



4. I actually was a big fan of using lease options before i ever read this book. I thought i knew it all when it came to lease options and the different ways to buy properties using this method. Well, guess what...I was very wrong. I actually found this book by accident and decided to give it try. I mean another book on lease options...WOW. Then i started reading the first page, the first page became the 7th page and so on. Next thing you know i was reading the entire book. THis book has changed my life and my business. I am a fellow investor and the information from this book changed the way i looked at lease options. Matthews book shows you exactly why they are number 1 for lease options in there area. His ideas are cutting edge, yet explained so that a 5 year old can understand them. Unlike many writers who claim to be investors, Matthew is a investor turned writer. One of the best features i found was that matthew broke down the mindset of different teants. By knowing the mindset of your tenant this gives you a hugh advantage of the compitition. This book helped me to reach a new level of understanding and a new level for my business. LOL, if he keeps writing books like this then he may have to start a fan club. So, in ending if you want a book that shows in detail the art of selling on a lease option and creating a steady cash flow every month, then please check this book out. I promise you will love it and if you dont then you have missed out.



5. I was expecting a turn key guide - I just didn't see it in this book. This book had some good info but not detailed enough for me - a lot of high level, basic, common sense information. I have been a landlord for many years and own many properties. I wanted to use this book to tap into the lease-options market - I will need to keep researching. I am actually a little upset I purchased this book - it was too expensive for what I got.

No comments about Option Spreads Made Easy Course Book with DVD (Trade Secrets Course Books).

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...

4 comments about Put Option Writing Demystified: Earn Double-Digit Cash Returns While Waiting to Buy Stocks at a Discount.

1. I would highly recommend this book to any stock investor who is looking for some new ideas to earn back the money they've lost in the bear market. Who ever heard of being paid immediate cash to wait to buy stocks at a lower price? That's what this book taught me to how to do. It sounds too good to be true, but I know it works because I've done it after reading the book. I wanted to buy the Nasdaq 100 Trust (QQQ) at a lower price. Instead of just waiting to see if it went lower, I wrote put contracts on the QQQ at my buy price using what I learned in the book. I collected $485 in cash in my brokerage account the next day. The stock didn't hit my price, so I didn't buy it the first month, but I got to keep the $485, which was a 24% return on an annual basis. The next month I did the same thing (collected $625 this time). My price was hit and I bought the QQQ shares for 15% less than the price when I started this. In the meantime I collected $1,110 while I waited to buy my shares for 15% less. This is explained so well that anyone can do it. Nobody I know seems to know about this. It's all in this book.



2. Dear Author!

   Just bought two books from Amazon, Put option writing and covered call writing. Thanks, your books are very useful, I will recommend to some of my friends about these wonderful books
   
   Thanks again,
   
   Readers
   Kenny




3. I ordered the book new, I found the data useful and assisted my in proving a point that i needed to prove. Highlighting and tabbing book caused ink to distort to the point of making the pages blank. Ink just falls off page. I expected better for the cost....



4. The title for this book is patently misleading. Introduction to put options would be more apprpriate; nothing is 'demystified'; granting different levels of experience in options trading if you know the difference between a put and a call save your money. As is the usual with these types of books half to two thirds of the book is devoted to explaining options.

3 comments about Stock Market Money Machine.

1. This is one of the worst investment books I have ever read! First of all, 80% of the book, the author is self promoting himself and telling you to pay for his seminars, buy his other books, and join his service. Not once, but almost every chapter. Oh, and they arent realy even chapters. The book is all over the place and says the same thing over and over and over again. There is no format to the chapters and everything is so scattered that really you only get one thing from this book. Wade Cook is the greatest investor of all time (so he says multiple times). There is some mention of covered call strategy but nothing worthwhile. I have never before read a book where the author is so full of himself. This may even top Arnold in "Pumping Iron". If you've seen it than you know its pretty bad (not the film but the ego). If you still dont believe me please buy my copy from me, its just taking up space.



2. I was dissappointed to see that Wade's "newest book" was a small paperback and looked more like a advertsing brochure than a book. There are some new strategies in here, but the material is too thin. Not enough meat. Looked like a 100+ page version of something Jane Bryant Quinn would write. Only istead of boring us with 1000+ pages of fluff like Quinn does, Wade does it with about 100.
   
   In the past, I had been a fan of Wade's despite the legal difficulties etc. His strategies worked for me especially rolling stocks, options on stock splits and covered calls. Wall Street Money Machine, Stock Market Miracles, Real Estate Money Machine and Real Estate for Real People were all outstanding books and I still reread t hem today and reapply what I learned.
   
   The stock strategies took about a $5,000 investment and ran it up to over $70,000. The real estate investment advice showed me how to start with zero down and create S-T-R-E-A-M-S of residual income using Wade's money machine concepts.
   
   Business Buy The Bible is a must read. Safety-First Investing was in my opinion, Wade's best book as were Rolling Stocks and Sleep lIke A Baby.
   
   That said, what the hell happened Wade? This book, Stock Market Miracles looks like something that was put out by a cheap, metoo, wannabe self publisher, not the so called GREAT WADE B. COOK!
   
   Is it really over Wade? Were the bashers right about you after all? OR have people like Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki trimmed you down to size? OR was it all of the Wade Cook imitators with their nickel and dime websites, ezines and newsletters that did the job?
   
   This book is way beneath you Wade. Now here are some suggestions:
   
   Why not rewrite WALL STREET MONEY MACHINE and this time, REALLY REWRITE IT (not just through a new cover on the same book we all read back in 1994) with what you learned from the 90's and the early 2000's and n ew powerful strategies.
   
   Don't give us a slim paperback. Give us the whole steak, meat and potatoes, like you did back in 1994 with WALL STREET MONEY MACHINE. Give us quality, not a little taste or an overblown brochure.
   
   WADE, you were trend setter. You did it twice. Will lightning hit a third time or will you let those little weasel bashers (like the idiots at Motley Fools and the clowns at The Street.com) get the best of you?
   
   Hmmmmmmmm????



3. Obviously the two reviews t hat preceeded mine were written by the same person. Same points, only difference is the more recent one is slightly kinder and gave Wade 3 stars instead of one.
   
   To me, Wade Cook is and always has b een on the cutting edge of investing. Who was talking about covered calls, options on stock splits, rolling stocks, range riders, bull put spreads, bull call spreads before Wade came on the scene? Answer: NO ONE!
   
   This book is smaller than Wade's other books. YES---He could have repeated the same information from his other books as so many other authors do and made it larger, but that would be defeating the purpose wouldn't it?
   
   This is new information. You won't find this on those cheap websites or in the other metoo books written by self publishers who are clueless on investing
   
   So I give it five stars. Smaller than normal book for Wade but same powerful timely advice.

No comments about 26 Lessons From the Master Trader.

5 comments about Options For The Stock Investor: How Any Investor Can Use Options to Enhance and Protect their Return.

1. "reads great, and it's less filling" Basic option theory is presented in a clear, concise way; however, because it lacks the theory, a novice investor would probably have his lunch eaten if he entered the fray with this book as his only background. And, good lord, do not be swayed into buying the book for its accompanying software: it's @#$%^. The book was published in 1997, and the software is a @#$%^ DOS program. ???



2. I picked up the book this morning and found it contained the same info you can get for free at the Chicago Board Options Exchange website. Furthermore, you can download the options calculator (Windows version), along with a slew of other training material, for free. I gave it two stars because it's in bound form, while the 300+ pages I printed off the cboe website aren't.



3. There are things you can do with options that you can not do with any other investment tool. This book, and most of the others, do a good job of explaining the theory behind options and their math. This book is no exception, and neither is the software.



4. Despite being an author, I do not buy many books, but I snatched this one up. The book clearly describes options, how they work, how to use them, and includes software I find invaluable for evaluating them. In my mind, this is the best book I've read on options and it is well worth considering.

   Thomas N. Bulkowski, author, "Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns," (Wiley, 2000) and "Trading Classic Chart Patterns" (Wiley, due in spring 2002)




5. From the beginning pages, the explanations are flowing and account for all levels of competency in options. When you finish the very readable book, you will no longer need to depend on others for advice; you become your own advisor. The graphs are excellent while the mathematical concepts are carefully explained. I now have confidence in my knowledge and my decisions. Hats off to Mr. Bittman! Only downside is that the software is out dated, but it was written in 97.

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

No comments about Introduction to Option-Adjusted Spread Analysis: Revised and Expanded Third Edition of the OAS Classic by Tom Windas.