McMillan on Options

Most options traders focus on strategies such as covered calls, vertical spreads, butterflies and condors, and so on. But traders often don't know how to use the "greeks"—the five factors that influence an option's price—to trade more effectively.

The "greeks" (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, Rho) are tools to measure minute changes in an option's price based on corresponding changes in:

• Interest rates
• Time to expiration
• Price changes in the underlying security
• Volatility
• Dividends

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

The Comprehensive, Up-to-Date Reference for Every Options Trader

• By Michael C. Thomsett, author of the global best-seller Getting Started in Options
• Illuminates virtually every technique and form of options trading--including options on futures and ETFs
• Helps you consistently choose the right options strategies and understand your true risks

For millions of traders and investors, options have become an indispensable tool: not just for increasing profits but also for systematically controlling risk. Now best-selling author Michael C. Thomsett has brought together all of today’s most important options strategies in a single authoritative reference. Using this readable, practical guidebook, you can select the right strategy for any application or market environment, clarify all your risks, and structure trades that accomplish your specific goals. Thomsett covers everything you need to know, from the core principles of options trading to the calculation of returns and taxes. He also provides a complete, easy-to-understand options glossary and extensive resources and links for traders at all levels of experience.

Options offer investors multiple opportunities to enhance their profits. However, options trading is complex, and the sheer scope of available strategies can overwhelm traders. Today, options can support a wide range of strategies, from high risk to conservative. Moreover, options are available not only for stock equities but also for futures, indices, and mutual funds. To trade successfully, traders need an authoritative, up-to-date guide to all the strategies available to them. Now, renowned options expert and best-selling author Michael C. Thomsett has created the definitive reference for options traders at all levels of experience.

Thomsett systematically illuminates each key technique and strategy: how trades are structured, how to assess risk, and when each strategy is most applicable. For most strategies, Thomsett presents detailed tables and illustrations identifying profit zones, loss zones, and breakeven points. This book thoroughly explains how option premium develops based on various elements of value, walks through the calculation of returns on options trading, discusses how federal taxation works in the options market, shows how stocks are picked for options trading, and provides a complete glossary and additional resources for traders.

• Thoroughly comprehend options trading risks
  Systematically evaluate risks associated with markets, volatility, inflation, taxation, portfolios, and knowledge
• Understand all the elements of value in an options trade
  Master concepts ranging from time-to-expiration to implied volatility
• Use the right strategies at the right time
  Know when to use covered calls, spreads, straddles, combinations, and synthetic positions
• The options marketplace: history, evolution, and trends
  Understand both the “forest” and the “trees”

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

Equity and index options expire on the third Friday of each month. As that moment approaches, unusual market forces create option price distortions, rarely understood by most investors. These distortions give rise to outstanding trading opportunities with enormous profit potential. In Trading Options at Expiration, leading options trader Jeff Augen explores this extraordinary opportunity with never-before published statistical models, minute-by-minute pricing analysis, and optimized trading strategies that regularly deliver returns of 40%--300% per trade.

You’ll learn how to structure positions that profit from end-of-contract price distortions with remarkably low risk. These strategies don’t rely on your ability to pick stocks or predict market direction and they only require one or two days of market exposure per month.

If you’re looking for an innovative new way to reignite your returns no matter where the markets move, you’ve found it in Trading Options at Expiration.

• Why traditional option pricing calculations always break down in the final days before expiration
  Three powerful end-of-cycle effects not comprehended by contemporary pricing models
• Reducing your risk by reducing your market exposure
  Trading only one or two days each month and avoiding overnight exposure
• Structuring trades that reflect true expiration-day behavior
  Leveraging the surprising power of expiration-day pricing dynamics

Capture Enormous Profits from End-of-Contract Options Trading!

•  How to profit from option price distortions that occur near expiration
• New strategies that can return as much as 300% per trade!
• Direction-neutral techniques that reduce risk and limit market exposure

In the final days and hours before option contracts expire, their behavior veers wildly away from the predictions of standard pricing models. These last-minute price distortions offer immense profit opportunities to those who can recognize and trade them. In this book, Jeff Augen illumintes these opportunities with new statistical models, minute-by-minute pricing analysis, and optimized trading strategies. You’ll learn to exploit expiration pricing forces to structure trades that return from 40%--300% while limiting market exposure to just one or two days each month. Unlike other trading strategies that offer large profits in exchange for increased risk, expiration trading reduces risk by limiting market exposure to just two trading sessions per month.

“The author’s option trading guidelines include important issues often overlooked by investors. Attention conservative investors! Michael C. Thomsett’s Options Trading for the Conservative Investor has hit a bull’s-eye...for you!”

–Marty Kearney, The Options Institute, Chicago Board Options Exchange

“Michael C. Thomsett has done a terrific job of showing how a conservative investor can use certain option strategies to his advantage. He spells out how that investor can utilize options to provide income, to protect stock holdings, or even as a substitute for stock itself. Every open-minded conservative investor should read this book.”

– Lawrence G. McMillan, publisher, The Options Strategist newsletter; president, McMillan Analysis Corporation; author, Options as a Strategic Investment

“This book is a must for the diligent investor. Perfectly timed for these uncertain markets, Michael C. Thomsett provides a lucid guide for how to approach options trading conservatively, yet also focuses on the fundamental need for good returns and provides real examples throughout.”

–Guy Cohen, author of The Bible of Options Strategies and creator of OptionEasy (www.optioneasy.com)

• New downside protection strategies, detailed examples, and step-by-step techniques for conservative investors
• Easy enough for virtually any experienced investor to use–even those without options experience
• By renowned options expert Michael C. Thomsett, author of the global best-seller Getting Started in Options

To protect yourself in today’s volatile and uncertain market environment, you need to hedge losses, create extra sources of income, and reduce risk. In this book, internationally renowned options expert Michael C. Thomsett shows how to do all that effectively. One step at a time, Thomsett helps you exploit 12 carefully chosen options strategies that can dramatically increase your overall returns as you manage risks within your personal limits.

Brief, carefully paced lessons on options and trading strategies using verbal definitions and many trading examples for clarification. Each lesson builds on the one preceding it and explains options in plain English, from start to finish. Step-by-step coverage of controlling risk, protecting your investments -- even advanced strategies other introductory books ignore! Authored by Dr. W. Edward Olmstead, contributing editor to The Spear Report and editor of The Options Professor newsletter.

Options provide traders and investors with a wide range of strategies to lock in profits, reduce risk, generate income, or speculate on market direction. However, they are complex instruments and can be difficult to master if misunderstood.

No-Hype Options Trading offers the straight truth on how to trade the options market. In it, author Kerry Given provides realistic strategies to consistently generate income every month, while debunking many myths about options trading that tend to lead retail traders astray. Along the way, he makes a conscious effort to avoid complex strategies that are appropriate only for market makers or professional traders, and instead focuses on low-risk strategies that can be easily implemented and managed by a part-time trader.

• Shows how you can use option spreads in conjunction with stocks to produce a regular stream of income
• Each chapter includes exercises to help you master the material presented
• Examines how you can adjust option positions as market conditions change in order to maintain an optimal risk/reward profile

Contrary to popular opinion, there are low-risk short option strategies--and here’s how to make them work for you.

Is there such a thing as a low-risk short option strategy? Many traders and investors do not think so, but in fact there is one way to put together a short spread that will not break the bank. A combined covered call and uncovered put accomplish this, assuming that a few basic precautions are followed. First among these is....

Written by Cisco networking authority Todd Lammle, this comprehensive guide has been completely updated to reflect the latest CCNA 640-802 exam. Todd’s straightforward style provides lively examples, hands on and written labs, easy-to-understand analogies, and real-world scenarios that will not only help you prepare for the exam, but also give you a solid foundation as a Cisco networking professional.

This Study Guide teaches you how to

• Describe how a network works
• Configure, verify and troubleshoot a switch with VLANs and interswitch communications
• Implement an IP addressing scheme and IP Services to meet network requirements in a medium-size Enterprise branch office network.
• Configure, verify, and troubleshoot basic router operation and routing on Cisco devices
• Explain and select the appropriate administrative tasks required for a WLAN
• Identify security threats to a network and describe general methods to mitigate those threats
• Implement, verify, and troubleshoot NAT and ACLs in a medium-size Enterprise branch office network.
• Implement and verify WAN links

On the CD-ROM:

• Chapter Review Questions
• Full-Length Practice Exams
• Electronic Flashcards

·         Exclusive CD-only bonus material, including the CCNA Simulation Exam Practice Guide

• All new Audio and Video Instruction from Todd Lammle

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.