Option Spread Trading: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategies and Tactics

Very specific book to explain strategic and the creeks. It start to make sense when apply strategies in the market

Just like the front cover says, Option Spread Trading is a comprehensive guide. Not only will you go from the basics of options, you will also get into advanced option topics such as the greeks, and delta neutral trading. There are several different option spread strategies covered including Straddles, Bull Spreads, Bear Spreads, Butterfly Spreads, Condor Spreads, Ratio Spreads and more. The author also covers exactly how to ‘leg’ into a spread trade.

This book is not intended to be read in one sitting cover to cover. There is so much covered that you will want to pick a topic and focus on that topic at first. I like the fact that there are several examples with each strategy introduced. There are also pictures and graphs for us visual people to make the wealth of information easy to digest. If you’ve ever been interested in trading options on earnings, that is covered right away in the chapter on Straddles. Each strategy comes with a chart detailing expected payoff and break-even points based on certain price levels.

One thing that I would have liked to see in the book is a resources or suggested further reading page. But overall I enjoyed the thoroughness of the book. After reading it I feel much more comfortable getting into options trading.

The author definitely knows what he is writing about but I have strong doubts about his ability to write a readable and error-free book. Throughout reading it, I had a strong impression that I was the first person on the planet who read it, and this includes the author himself and editors and proofreaders if there were any. (It is incomprehensible to me how such a reputable publishing house as Wiley could give it a green light.) But it is not only English, which sometimes gives you a real headache. It is also factual errors. For example, there is reference to Figure 4.4 but it is not there. There is also no Figure 4.3 but luckily, there is no reference to it, either. The author writes “straddle” where it should be “strangle” and “iron condor” where it should be “iron butterfly.” Figure 5.17 has Long Straddle with wrong numbers, and this is a Figure comparing the Long Straddle with the Reverse Iron Butterfly. There are more errors, misreferences, and clumsy sentences violating the rules of English grammar. The author also has a very strange tendency to explain relatively simple concepts in the most convoluted manner and constantly repeat himself.

The aforementioned Figure 5.17 was a last straw that broke my patience and rushed me to write this review. I am almost sure that I will see more surprises in the rest of the book, and I intend to read it to the end because of the autor’s competence in the subject (that’s why 2 stars rather than 1). So if you are eager to test your patience and to see how quickly you’ll get really annoyed with this book, buy this book with confidence.

The Bottom Line Lesson Book. No Grey lines, take it to the bank, learn your P’s and Q’s kind of book. When Russell speaks you listen.

I been trading options for many years now. I know the importance of risk management and looking for undervalued options. Looking for the traders’ edge. This book most verbose book on options ever. Although Mr Rhoads may have a strong command of options, he adds nothing to give you an edge. You can go to the CBOE and find more concrete examples of spreads. There is a lot of fat and no meat in this book. It is not even a good source book just to find important details. After reading his strategy on put spreads, I said where is the edge, the greeks, the diagrams???? There are a lot of words…no insight that we always look for…especially from someone like Mr Rhoads…There are lot better book on spreads. Mr, Rhoads is no Dan or Larry. Read their books on options.

I was interested in finding a strategy to leverage my trading and wanted some easy-to-understand explanations of advanced options trading. This was just the ticket. The author explains in detail a number of different multiple-options strategies referred to as “spreads” and it did not take long for me to find one that was suited to me and my trading style. There was also some useful practical advice. My advice is that when you are ready to move past simply buying a few puts and calls you need to read this book. You will get an idea of the different strategies available and you just might find a strategy that you like!