Options as a Strategic Investment is now in its 5th edition, completely updated and revised to include many new strategic options investments. It is an absolute must for any aspiring options trader and the treasures within will serve the budding young trader immediately.
Written by Lawrence G. McMillan the book is designed to provide a comprehensive collection of different options strategies and the criteria for successfully implementing each. In the work, McMillan leaves no stone unturned as he navigates his way from the simplest to the most complex options strategies on the planet. Their is no shortage of misinformation in this business and in this book trust that each strategy is discussed in complete detail and includes all the ancillary information needed to initiate a position.
“A comprehensive collection of options strategies and the criteria for implementing each”
From the beginning, Options as a Strategic Investment swings the door wide open with a more than thorough section over covered calls. And for those not yet familiar, a covered call is the purchase of, at least, 100 shares of underlying stock and the simultaneous sale of a call option. The strategy is known throughout the trading community as one of the more conservative and safest strategies to deploy, but I’ll leave it you and the reading to formulate that opinion.
It doesn’t matter which strategy you wish to employ, Options as a Strategic Investment has a full length section covering it. Additionally, Mr. McMillan will provide the exact market conditions, to include, volatility, time to expiration, expected moves, standard deviations, and everything in between. Stated again, the book is simply the most exhaustive resource available and any trader hoping to survive or thrive in this business will need this or a similar utility. I cannot however, comment on other books.
Conclusion
Before I conclude, I think its useful to state that this book isn’t intended to be read cover to cover. You could, but this is a very dense book with smaller than average text so attempting to read it entirely would take considerable time. I use it as a reference work and I can assure you I refer to it on a nearly a daily basis.
In addition, Options as a Strategic Investment also has a study guide companion that I can highly recommend as I myself have used it. The study guide is more of a quiz covering each respective section but certainly lends itself well to solidifying the information. Here is the link to the Study Guide for those of you interested in viewing it as well.
In the end, an optimistic young options trader will need credible information to rely on and this book should be that collection of information. Furthermore there is no technical, fundamental, or statistical analysis to speak of, so there is zero theory. The book presents the strategy, along with the laundry list of pros and cons associated with each, and in what market condition each pro or con applies. That’s it.
Wishing you a lifetime of profitability,
Jeff “the Option Boxer”
