
Please try another search
Michael Sincere, a full-time writer with several investing and trading books to his credit, has updated and expanded Understanding Options, originally published in 2006 (McGraw-Hill). Its intended audience is the novice, although for this second edition he went beyond the basics, including a section on intermediate and advanced strategies and an interview with Sheldon Natenberg.
Sincere works hard to make options accessible and “entertaining.” In introducing the concept of an option he gives not only the standard example of an option on a house but adds the case of buying options on snow shovels. (Admittedly, as I'm writing the draft of this review I can’t consider anything having to do with snow shovels even remotely entertaining, but some day it will warm up, my endlessly long, steep driveway that I spent two days hand shoveling and that is now a treacherous sheet of ice will clear, and the oil truck will be able to come down since I suspect I’m currently heating the house on fumes. [Update for those who feared that some poor soul would find me frozen solid with a book clutched in my hands: Success!])
Sincere starts with five chapters on selling covered calls and continues with six chapters on buying calls and four on buying puts. He clearly explains issues that tend to trip up beginning option traders, such as exercise and assignment.
The intermediate and advanced section of the book is rather sketchy. In about eighty pages he describes credit and debit spreads, buying straddles and strangles, selling cash-secured and naked puts, delta and the other Greeks, advanced strategies (iron condors, calendars, and butterflies), and trading options with ETFs, indexes, weeklys, and mini-options.
The merit of Sincere’s book is that it provides a clear introduction to the mechanics of opening and managing straightforward options positions. This is information that every option trader should understand thoroughly. Understanding Options should not be the last book that he reads, but it’s a good first one.
Emini daily chart The S&P 500 Futures gapped down and sold off below last Friday’s low. The market is continuing to go sideways at resistance. Because the market has been in a...
Gold reverses lower after leaping to record highsDollar recovers, turns to ISM survey for directionStock markets pull back, led by big tech sharesGold loses altitude The...
In the previous meeting, Canada's central bank kept its key interest rate at 5%. The current interest rate is unsustainable for Canadians, and it seems evident that the Bank of...
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.