Options DeMYSTiFieD reveals why today’s smartest investors rely on the versatility of the options marketplace–and how you can, too! With its quick, snappy explanations and easy-to-understand examples, it provides the knowledge you need to start trading options like a pro in no time. Chapterending quizzes and a final exam round out Options DeMYSTiFieD into a comprehensive self-teaching guide that allows you to learn at your own pace.
Author’s Note:
In addition to explaining how the professionals speculate in the markets, this book teaches you how to hedge with options. This strategy provides a variety of methods for using options to mitigate your worse nightmare—watching the value of your favorite securities plunge like Wile E. Coyote when he overruns a cliff. Options help any investor or trader sleep the sleep of the righteous. Please take note of some of the words and phrases that I use, like learning about and being exposed to. This book demystifies options, giving you a solid understanding of what options are and how to use them. It is a place to start your study of options if you choose to:
- Speculate for profit
- Generate additional income from your existing assets
- Use options to protect your current wealth
It does not attempt to teach you how to trade. There are hundreds of books on that subject already available. As you will learn, you cannot become a trader by reading or attending classes, any more than you can become a scratch golfer or tennis wizard without hitting balls. It takes time on the links or courts to become proficient. Nevertheless, reading and studying in advance is the first step. My objective by the end of this book is to enable you to decide if you want options to become a part of your investment life.
Do not let my use of words like market/markets and strike or striking price confuse you. When I use the word market, I am referring to a specific market, such as the stock, futures, or option market. Markets means all markets or the concept of the marketplace in general. Strike price and striking price are interchangeable and mean the same thing—the price at which an owner of an option can exercise his or her position. In your future reading, you will see different authors favoring one version or the other. Do not let it bother you.
I favor the Socratic approach to teaching. Therefore, you will encounter many questions within the text. To get the very most out of this book, read each question thoughtfully, close your eyes for a second, and attempt to devise an answer to the question. Make notes in the margin. This helps you define your investing/trading philosophy. Answering these questions generates insights that will help you understand what you want out of the subject matter and how to apply it. The more thought and effort you put into understanding options, the better the learning experience will be for you, making this book much more readable, enjoyable, and valuable.
At the end of each chapter, you will find a quiz, and at the end of the book, there is a final exam. These are openbook tests. If you do not immediately know or understand the answer, look back in the chapter. Read over the material if need be. Never leave a chapter without completing the quiz. It is part and parcel of the learning experience.
Contents:
- The Wide, Wide World of Options
- Everyday Options
- Your First Serious Look at Using Options
- The Playing Fields
- Hitting Moving Targets
- Getting Down to the Business of Trading
- Who You Do Business With
- Fortune Telling 101
- Just Trade It!
- Some Advanced Concepts
- The Mighty Futures Markets
- Become the Bubble and Ride the Wind
Options DeMYSTiFieD By Thomas McCafferty pdf
Maddox Rangel (verified owner) –
The author explains in great detail and effectiveness the underlying structure of options, stock and commodity markets and the processes thereof of trading these entities. He deals out some basic strategies in an offhand manner about actual options trading. He writes in a slightly aloof manner which reminds me of sitting next to a gregarious expert at a bar divulging company and industry secrets. Sometimes, those are the best sources for whatever you can get.
Luisa Dodson (verified owner) –
Good source of self learning.
Ryleigh Allen (verified owner) –
“Options Demystified” is a worthy addition to McGraw-Hill’s “Demystified” series, easily living up to its claim of being a self-teaching guide. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject of puts and calls, but this large-format paperback is by far the best I’ve come across for the aspiring option trader. It is comprehensive, well organized, generously illustrated and easy to understand. The book also includes many quizzes and a “final exam” to help the reader master the material.
The author, Thomas McCafferty, has been around commodities, stocks and options for many years and written numerous books on those subjects. This one not only lays out the basics of the options game, it also condenses much of the author’s impressive horse-sense into a very readable and relatively short work (251 pages, plus an excellent index). “Options Demystified” should be on every trader’s shelf. Even pros will find some pearls here, including a chapter on “trading philosophy” that’s perfectly attuned to today’s frothy markets. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone looking for an options primer that is both comprehensive and easy to imbibe.
Bear Branch (verified owner) –
This was a quick enjoyable read which provides an overview of options. This is a good first book to read to see if you want to invest more time studying.
Seven Porter (verified owner) –
This is just awful as it fails to give graphic examples of stock options. The author just blabs and blabs without any coherance. I bought this book to shed light on this confusing subject—it confused me even further! Go to the CBOE to get crystal clear answers to most of your options questions. There must be better options out there!!!
Dorothy Rivers (verified owner) –
..then this is the book you should be reading first.
I bought two books to help me understand what options were about, “Options Made Easy” by Guy Cohen and this one. Guy Cohen’s book has so many incomprehensible charts and diagrams on practically every page that it left me with nothing learned. His book is definitely not for the beginner such as myself. I stopped reading it about a third of the way through, thinking I’m never going to “get options”.
Then I took up reading “Options Demystified” and it was like a breath of fresh air. I went through the whole book in 3 days, highlighting the essentials that I wanted to return to and will shortly start on re-reading it again before actually purchasing any Puts and Calls.
“Options Demystified” definitely adheres to the KISS philosophy (“keep it simple, stupid”) and for the beginner to get an overview of the mechanics of option trading, this is exactly what we need.
I will agree on one point with the previous negative reviewer on his suggestion to go to the CBOE website (Chicago Board Options Exchange) and go into their Learning center. They also keep it simple so we newbies can “get it”.