Trade Options Online
$6.32
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Format |
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| Pages |
481 |
| Published Date |
2009 |
Trade Options Online includes a comprehensive guide to fundamental and technical analysis methodologies, a detailed list of the best financial resources, websites analyzed from the point of view of an online options trader, and a review of the most popular online brokerages. This book is your complete guide to earning a living and making a killing as an online options trader.
Introduction:
The text of this book concentrates on two main areas of focus: option strategies and online trading. The first few chapters center on introducing online trading practices into your everyday life as a trader. Since there is an overabundance of financial information available online, the web sites, brokerages, and products selected for review are those that we believe to be most useful to options investors. Each chapter includes personal tips and insights designed to enhance the online experience and act as building blocks for investment success.
Chapter 4 takes you step-by-step through stock and options basics (experienced traders may wish to skip this chapter). Chapters 5 through 9 provide a detailed analysis of various managed-risk option strategies that are designed to take advantage of everyday market opportunities using online resources. In order to enhance your ability to understand each strategy, I have included a hypothetical trade that details how to compute each strategy’s maximum risk, maximum profit, breakevens, and exit alternatives. A great deal of effort has been expended to test these strategies and to develop off-floor techniques that enable traders to consistently build up their trading accounts.
By focusing on clear explanations of how to really make money in the markets using options, this book refrains from exposing readers to information that is overly theoretical or technically complicated. In fact, technical analysis has been intentionally avoided. I want to help you integrate these options-based trading techniques into a comprehensive strategic trading plan that fits your own personal profile.
Chapter 10 takes a closer look at the futures market. Then we look at ways to improve the quality of the information used in the decision-making process by “Streamlining Your Approach” in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 offers concrete information regarding online brokerages and their ability to cater to the unique needs of the options trader. Following this in-depth review of available online brokerages, Chapter 13 delves into placing a trade online; although each online brokerage has its own unique design format, we take a walk through the basic online trading process. In Chapter 14, we delve into ways to manage trading risk and end this exploration by taking a look at the big picture.
In addition, several appendixes offer a variety of information geared to helping investors find what they need in order to maintain a competitive online edge. Appendix A contains a summary of key investment strategies; reviews profit, risk, and breakeven calculations; and supplies various tables that provide useful definitions, market acronyms, and other need-to-know material. Appendix B contains a glossary of fundamental and technical analysis methodologies. This handy reference guide is designed to help you define some of the more complex techniques that may be referenced over the Internet as clues to forecasting market price movements.
Appendix C contains a short list of options trading software and the Internet sites where they can be reviewed. Appendix D features reviews of more than 200 financial resource sites broken down into the following categories: supersites, news, research, education, technical analysis, options, webzines, high technology, exchanges, advisers, specialty sites, and fun and games. This exhaustive list of resource sites and reviews is the most comprehensive list I’ve ever run across and I’m proud to be able to share this wealth of knowledge in this book. Finally, Appendix E surveys online brokerages as they compare to one another in services, commissions, and resources.
This book is designed as an instructional guide to help you unleash the unlimited power of your computer and take advantage of what the Internet has to offer you as an options trader. It is also an instructional manual with the lowdown on managed-risk option strategies that allow you to make the most out of today’s volatile markets. If you’re ready, it’s time to join the fresh breed of online investors who are forging a new path with a wealth of resources at their fingertips. It is my deepest hope that this book may inspire you to become as passionate about online trading as I am. It’s time to seize hold of your financial destiny—mouse in hand—and venture forth into cyberspace in search of the next great trade.
Contents:
- the options market today
- online investing 101
- online trading resources
- a primer for trading stocks and options
- basic option trading strategies
- vertical spreads
- delta neutral strategies
- ratio spreads and backspreads
- sideways strategies
- the futures market
- online trading from A to Z
- the quest for the ultimate online brokerage
- order processing
- ready, set, engage
Trade Options Online By George A. Fontanills pdf
21 reviews for Trade Options Online
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Catherine Landry (verified owner) –
I was disappointed that perhaps half of the book is about brokers, yet there is nothing on which brokers allow options trading within IRA’s
Maxton Griffith (verified owner) –
The book is O.K. The strategies are very old even though Mr. Fontanills, gives the impression that he invented them (through so-called optionetics)!. Please skip the part where Mr. Fontanills promots himself as he does in his options courses !
Jaxx Escobar (verified owner) –
This is a reasonable book on elementary options principles. It also has a pretty extensive listing of good internet resources for traders. But if you’re looking for any advanced trading ideas, look elsewhere.
Omar Golden (verified owner) –
The book is clearly written and it solved many of the mysteries I had concerning trading options. An excellent feature of the book is that it gives the addresses of many online sources for stock or option information.
Peyton Maldonado (verified owner) –
I’ve finally found the Option trading guide I’ve been looking for. Others I’ve read include Futures which isn’t my style. Agreeing with a previous review I too appreciate the various appendixes. This is a book I couldn’t put down until I had read it completely. Now it sits on my ‘trading desk’ for instant reference. Thank you Mr. Fontanills.
Nolan Marsh (verified owner) –
From description this sounded like a very good book since I am interested in trading options. Lo and behold I find out this book was published in 1999 and in 8 years lots of new things have been developed. You should have mentioned in your promo that this book was written 8 yrs. ago. I got ripped off. Just be honest with your descriptons. Les Lerner
Danna Hendricks (verified owner) –
I enjoyed the book and the Appendix analysis of top option web sites.
It is a concise introduction into trading options. For $20 it a great place to start to learn how to trade options online.
I liked it as it was not a promotional piece instead a real traders attempt to unearth the how to of trading options on the internet. Fontanills I thought was very modest in the book as he omits talking about himself in any depth other than in a light hearted manner to illustrate he is an ordinary guy made good.
Great book. Worked for me.
Edison Barton (verified owner) –
Wow. I love this book. It is easy to understand, practical for use, candid and to the point for options traders.
He introduces the subject, then leads you down the path of how to cyber trade. For $23 it is a steal. I loved the rankings of the brokers .. mine did not rank and I may try a new one. The web site reviews are useful and have already become a valuable resource for me.
Bravo Mr. Fontanills you have helped me out. Thank you for taking the time to help the average trader learn your insight to trading.
Elaina Henderson (verified owner) –
George A. Fontanills’ latest text on trading options online provides the novice and intermediate options trader with a wealth of information. For the experienced and advanced options trader, the text is a succincly written treasure of reference information. When combined with his Options Trading Course and Workbook, the reader is armed with knowledge and confidence to trade intelligently and profitably. The two texts (w/ workbook) work well together in answering the questions I had while reading Trade Options Online.
Maddox Hardy (verified owner) –
I thought this book was well rounded and covered the topic well. The basic strategies are set out in an easy to understand way. He goes on to analyze online brokers, all web site that deal with options and the necessary tools for the option trader. For the price that Sacred Traders offers this I thought it a good buy. I bought his other book Options Course which gives a good review of delta neutral trading. The Trade Options Online could have gone into more detail but it points out that most brokers cannot do complex option trading online yet. So the book covers what is currently available on the Internet for option traders. Good book worth the money for the review section alone.
Saylor Arellano (verified owner) –
Before reading this book, I was almost totally ignorant of options and option strategies. With the information I gained from Fontanills, I now trade options online and I’ve actually managed to make money in a declining market.
This book is excellent in every regard. It presents numerous basic and not so basic strategies and explains them in clear terms with illustrative examples including graphs and calculations of theoretical trades.
Just as important is the section with no nonsense ratings of online brokers from the perspective of their ability to trade options. Through this review I was able to find a broker that actually had their own floor traders, rather than one that farms out its option trades. This is important as my trades generally come back with prices better than I expect.
He has terrific sections on online resources for information on options and providers of data and charts. There is also a helpful glossary of trading and market terminology.
Overall, this is a must have reference for anyone who is new to options or has a basic understanding and would like to learn more. It is also helpful if you have traded options before through a broker and you would like to switch to online trading.
Alicia Austin (verified owner) –
Not a bad book, but it was written when the web was new. It’s not about options as much as it’s about where to trade them and how to open an account. If you’re looking for an old how-to on getting an account setup and some basics of options, good book. If you’re looking to compare BSM, Monte Carlo and Binomial methods, take a pass.
Giuliana Garcia (verified owner) –
There are some errors in the book which indicate that it was not properly edited. e.g. In the section on ratio put spreads, he refers to a Jan 95 put with a premium that is different from the amount in the accompanying table. The net debit amount is therefore calculated incorrectly and the max. reward is also incorrect. I found this type of error in earlier sections. They may look like minor errors but they are confusing and detract from the effectiveness of this introductory book. Also, Some of the formulas (e.g. break-even price for call retio backspreads) are sloppily formulated with incorrect brackets.
Beau Kim (verified owner) –
I bought the book after reading others’ good reviews here, and was fully expecting a wealth of options strategies and most importantly, personal experience and insights from such a celebrated option trader-author. However, IMHO, this book turned out to be a combination of
– superficial introductory text to ‘online investing’ (from Chapter 1 to 4), which is more suited to a Finance 101 course of high school students, if there’s such one. – a decent list of option trading strategies (Chap 5-8) – an extremely rich list of online resources for financial web sites, online brokerages, and other sites geared for options trading. The extensive listings are surely impressive, however, as another reviewer pointed out, can get outdated easily.
It is certainly not a bad book, but I usually buy books because I expect to find more insightful writing which is not readily obtainable from the web. To this front I was a bit disappointed in this book. To me it seems that the author practiced a low-cost approach to make money out of this book by just compiling a long list of online resources and writing some very basic educational text, instead of sharing his trading strategies and experiences. Maybe this approach is good for a beginner who has not started stock trading yet, but for a typical stock investor/day trader who is trying to diversify into option trading, there is room for more value-added discussion.
At the same time, the author seems to be keen on promoting his Optionetics website, which itself is pretty impressive (if you pay to subscribe the Platinum service).
All in all, the book is a pretty good reference to get started, simply because it has a wealth of pointers to online resources, and a decent listing of option spread strategists. But if I get more experienced in options trading, I’ll look for a better book to keep.
Gabriella Dickson (verified owner) –
Finally a book you can sink your teeth into and getstarted. I’ve read dozens of trading books where you finish and youwonder what your next step should be. Here the author gives detailed examples of strategies. There are also very few typos or mistakes which to me is most infuriating. You buy a “how to” book and you need a decoder ring to try and figure out what the author really meant because they didn’t bother to proof the book. Not so with this book.
Chapter 9 was so refreshing! Here the author walks thru step-by-step what his typical trading day would involve. No “well-chosen” examples to fit the author’s purpose, just fundamentals that he looks for and where online he looks.
The web site reference section alone is worth the price of the book. For me it well save hundreds of hours of World Wide Wait (WWW) searching for relevent sites with good, useful and reliable information. The reference site also had pricing info for those sites that weren’t free. It also gave me an idea of what’s available out there, Online!
There was a lot of educational sites for those remaining questions, like the break down of the “Greeks”. These would of been too much to cover in this book and I’m glad the author didn’t try to.
This book is a great first-step for ONLINE Option traders.
Good Luck Trading!
PS The author doesn’t self promote. He mentions a couple of his own sites amoung the hundreds of sites he references. The reference would be less than complete if he had left out his own sites.
Jessica Fitzgerald (verified owner) –
The book focuses on option strategies that you can use online and option disciplines.
Chapter 1 & 2 introduce online trading for an option trader. Chap. 3 is a step by step through stock and option basics. Then 4 through 8 go through 15 managed risk strategies for online traders.
That was all very interesting and then I got to what for me made the book. In chapter 9 it was all pulled together by walking through a step by step series of web sites in search of a profitable trade. Moving on to an analysis of online brokers and how they rate for option traders. His top 10 option firms gave me a place to start my own research. Then he goes into how to place a trade online.
I did not expect such a great analysis of all the top web sites in the Appendix of 250 top financial sites. The Appendix go on and on.
It is totally untrue to state that Mr Fontanills states that he invented option trading strategies. He confides in this book and his other Option Course Book that he learned it from the floor of the exchange. It is his interpretation in an easy to understand manner that is so unique. When I read other texts I get lost. When I read Fontanills work I understand. That is his essence .. “that he can communicate the complicated so I can understand”.
So my negatives of the book is that he should have covered certain strategies in more depth. But I would imagine that at 350 pages, Wiley the publisher, wanted to keep the cost of the book down. I believe this is a great addition to any option traders library. It is refreshing to find a real trader that teaches his art to the masses.
Bravo Mr. Fontanills.
Erin Stewart (verified owner) –
First 8 chapters give you a very superficial introduction to the options trading and some strategies. Let me repeat – very superficial. If you want to learn that matter, you definetely need another book.
So, I was trying to get usefull info on the WEB resources. Let me tell you – two years make a big difference in the Internet world. Many sites do not exist. Some of them have nothing in common with the description, which you find in a book. Chapter 9 – “cybervesting from A to Z” is a complete waste of time and is full of frustration. It guides you through interfaces of nonexisting web pages. The pages, which, according to th author, answer the crutial questions of a trade. I lost most of time just to verify nonexistence of the referenced resources.
James Simon (verified owner) –
What I like about this book is that it makes a nice complement to other books on options. It makes a detailed comparison between different online brokers, discusses online information sources, options software, and order execution. I saw this book in the bookstore and decided this was worth the price of the book for me. I have no doubt I could have found the same information on the internet, but then my time is worth something as well and it’s not an expensive book.
Most of the book is a basic overview of options strategies. I skipped most of it since I have some experience with options already and I have other books that go in more detail. I knew that going in so that was OK with me. I got what I wanted from the book.
Kalani Torres (verified owner) –
Based on fairly good reviews, I bought this book. I’m still working my way through it but have skipped around enough to realize it is not the ultimate book with which to learn options trading. I was specifically looking for information on writing Covered Calls and this book only gave about two short paragraphs to that particular subject. Woefully inadequate. However the book does have a good amount of resources, ratings of financial web sites, comparisons of on-line brokerages, that I found useful. But, this is the type of information that becomes outdated quickly because of the rapidly changing environment on the Internet. So overall I’d have to say that if you are looking for the ultimate book on options trading, keep looking otherwise this is probably a good enough introduction. Me….I’m still looking.
Aniyah Collier (verified owner) –
Wow! A book that really delivers the goods.
Starting out with Online Investing 101. and moving on to Online Trading Resources Fontanills introduces the world of cyber trading. Then he moves to introduce the options basics strategies. In particular he concentrates on Vertical Spreads. and Covered Writes to show how to trade online.
Then he moves to his trademark of Delta Neutral Strategies. The book covers Ratio Spreads and Backspreads, Sideways Spread Strategies. Now we got to the bits that I really was thrilled by the Cybervesting from A to Z. This is a complete analysis of all the investment web sites that options traders need to know. If it is not here then forget it. This is an exhaustive review of all the players on the web for option trading.
As a frustrated option trader I was enthralled by his review of all the brokers and their rankings. He is candid and brutal in his rankings. he concentrates on their performance not their marketing. I was surprised by his choice for best broker.
He wraps up with good sections on Living Online, Appendices and of course a Glossary.
This was a great read that will live on my desk as a reference guide for my trading. It is the Fontanills trademark of being easy to understand, practical and written for the average reader not the PHD. This man can really write so others can grasp the complex strategies that he conveys.
I like the candid story of his life, cancer victim, Harvard MBA etc. and now a money manager for a living.
Great read and invaluable guide to how to trade options online.
Jayden Williamson (verified owner) –
This book is absolutely superb, and is a must for the new options trader. Having just recently upgraded my online trading account for options, this book is indispensable to me.
The writing is clear and concise. The information at the end of the book – an everything you ever wanted to know about online resources (web sites for options trading) – is worth the cost of the book alone.
Not only does the author document all of these web sites (a couple hundred of them, if I’m not mistaken), but he even gives candid ratings for them too.
This book is almost like having a personal options mentor at your side.