Publisher's Synopsis
Over the past several years, I've spoken with hundreds of option traders regarding their positions. Regardless of their strategies, I found that traders regularly made the same mistakes, over and over again. It wasn't that they took a neutral or a bullish position and then had the stock price move against them...that's unavoidable and will happen to everyone. Even if they put on the correct position for the anticipated move in the stock price, many customers failed to properly manage their positions. They didn't focus on the Greek values of their positions, and they didn't pay attention to the events and changes in the marketplace around them. There are literally hundreds of books out there on how to trade options. One book will tell you how you can get rich off of options trading, while another will tell you that you can generate a regular monthly income by trading options. Generally speaking, these books will show you one facet of the options marketplace that you can use to profit. Other books will give you one thousand pages of theory. As one reader stated in his/her Amazon review of a similar publication, "They use XYZ stock in all their examples, but none of the discussions are based on anything you find in the real world." This book isn't going to show you how to get rich. It isn't going to give you "time proven" strategies to generate an income trading options, and it isn't going to show you how to do technical analysis. Instead, I am going to show you the traps and pitfalls you need to avoid when you are trading options. In addition, I will show you how to focus on the position's characteristics, especially the Greeks, so your position is the right position for your target underlying price. -Learn how to identify fees and other costs associated with your trade and save money. -Learn how to avoid early assignment and manage your position into expiration. -Learn about the special risks and characteristics of non-standard options. -Learn how to read the Greek values of your position and how to adjust your position to conform to your risk preferences. -Learn how to hedge your risks of both losing and winning positions, with a specific focus on your Greek values. This book is an intermediate and advanced topics guide for those who are already trading options. Even if you are beginner, though, the information included in these pages will help you learn about the complex nature of these products and get you asking the right questions. I use real life examples when I demonstrate a point, rather than an imaginary stock. All past examples included in these chapters have been carefully selected to demonstrate how dynamic the marketplace truly can be. These timeless examples will allow you to learn from other peoples' mistakes, before losing your own money to similar errors. Too many people learn to trade options based upon a set of assumptions that don't capture the true risks of the option positions. There is so much more to trading options than what your profit or loss can be at expiration. If you are not prepared, you will find yourself reacting to surprises in your account, which will hurt you profitability. This book will serve as a tool to help you to understand the process of option trading, and how to effectively select and manage your position(s) in anticipation of events or changes in the marketplace.
