The Options Course : High Profit & Low Stress Trading Methods
Author: George A. Fontanills
List Price: $60.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0471249505
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (April, 1998)
Sales Rank: 27,824
Average Customer Rating: 3.47 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
How much will it cost you if you DON'T read it?
I've read dozens of books on options and investing. They all work pretty well in a bull market. A pre-schooler can make money in a bull market! The strategies George teaches in his book are the best I've learned for making money in bull, bear and/or sideways markets. Do you know what the risk curves look like for various strategies you've been trading, and how time affects the curves? You'll learn them here. If you write covered calls, how would you like to triple your % return and cut your downside risk to a third, just by using another strategy you'll learn? Do you know what Delta is? How it can be used to maximize profit and keep a trade Delta Neutral? I didn't, but I understand it now and won't make the same mistakes again. What's gamma? Theta? What I learned is that the floor traders are using these strategies every day as they move billions of dollars around. Why hasn't anyone explained them this well before? I used to think straddles made little sense, since the put and call will offset each other's profits, right? I learned differently. I learned about ratio backspreads and how to look for spreads that offer 3:1, 5:1 reward:risk profiles, or even more. I learned about combining spreads to create nearly-free trades, and trades for neutral markets that can remain profitable even as the stock channels between limits. The methodologies are important to understand and George explains them well, including times that are good to put on a trade, and his rules for taking part or all of a trade off the table, and why. I also like his advice that we pick one or two strategies in one or two sectors and specialize in them. I know I'm enthusiastic about this book, and it's because it offers real value for the price. How much is it worth to have an expert trader with you, sharing the best of what he's learned over his career, distilled for you to look at over and over again? Is it worth the cover price of the book? Amazon discounts it, so you'll get it for even less! If the prayer method of trading isn't working for you, read George's book! If you trade an account with more than $1,000 in it, you can't afford NOT to read it. The next trade you make should be your credit card number for this book! In fact, the more you have in the market, the more valuable the book is for you. If you pick up one idea or one distinction, or avoid one mistake for having read the book, it will have paid for itself hundreds or thousands of times. Again, no one put me up to this, but I spent tens of thousands on an MBA in finance and marketing and never learned how to make money....so shouldn't I be excited by someone teaching me not only how to make money, but how to protect what I have? You should, too!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent Book on how to find high profit trades
I was given the book for Xmas by my wife who trades options for a living to encourage me to stop day trading.I could not put the book down. Easy to read, practical and non promotional. Just the down and dirty of how to make money trading.
This man's style is to try to help others. Cancer victim and now successful money manager. Don't get me wrong he does only talk about that stuff in passing to indicate that his life has not been all rosy.
The trading information is to the point and step by step. I found myself seeing for the first time why I had to trade options. He explains how to find the trades, analyse them, delta neutral trading techniques and how to enter/exit the trades. The appendix are invaluable.
My wife was very amused when I opened an options account on January 5. But I had to read this book to finally understand how to trade them.
Oh, I asked my wife why this book and she said that she has seen everything out there and Fontanills leaves them all in the dust. A real trader that can communicate the concepts. Many other salesman have scooped up his ideas and profess them as there own.
...learn from the master and avoid the $$ scams.
Now to put it all in practice
Rating: 1 out of 5
There is no such thing as low-stress money
I did not finish this book, because I lost interest in options trading and also became somewhat suspicious of the author's motives. OK you write a book to attract people to your website, so what? Does it mean that trading options is much different from betting in a casino? Assuming one cannot predict the timing of stock price movements, what makes the timing of volatility any more predictable? As with stock prices, one can often say what is likely to happen (movement up or down) but it is hardly possible to say *when* it will happen: tomorrow, next week or in two years. If you are long a stock you will not lose anything because of the timing as long as the fundamentals are good, however if you trade options and the assumption about timing is wrong, you waste your money on endless transaction costs, plus service fees charged by option-trading software providers or websites such as the one run by the author. Not to mention capital gains taxes.
It is probably possible to make money this way, but by no means is this approach "stress-free", and certainly not risk-free. Those who want easy money should try selling books or videotapes about options promising triple digit returns. Similar Products
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Getting Started in Options, Fifth Edition
The Options Course Workbook
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