Customer Reviews

All About Options

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I think this book is quite good for "serious" beginners. But at the same time if you are a person who starts yawning on seeing a delta or gamma, you better stick with Ken Roberts and Cook's books. For as one reviewer has rightly said those are good for light entertainment and fantasy, etc.. But if you want to learn the ropes then there is no way out except falling in love with deltas and gammas. There is no free lunch. The reason why i withheld the fifth star, is that most of today's options strategies are software based and this book sheds insufficient light on that subject. Also another note to two previous reviewers, options cannot exist in isolation. Options are based on futures (except stock based options) and hence they cannot be studied or understood without refering to futures. Anyway i don't think there will be many books out there which can teach options only in isolation. so good luck. and as i said if you don't want to take the pains for example, like learning underlying relations between futures and options, stay away from this arena. Thanks.

We have referred several of our clients to Mr. McCafferty's book and they have all given it a thumbs up! He starts with the simple strategies and works his way up to more complicated strategies. He includes money management plans and how to implement your own trading plan, as well as how to integrate new software packages into your trading plan. We mail this book to clients who need help with options. This book is a must for new option traders!

I have read a couple of option books and this is by far and away the most comprehensive of the books that I have read on options and option trading. This book has made a somewhat sticky subject easy.

This book made me more confused about options than before I began reading it. I do not recommend this book to anyone interested in getting started in option trading.

Mr. McCafferty's book seeks to provide a comprehensive review of options trading, and it is filled with what could be helpful and illustrative examples. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of editing. This means, for instance, that many of the examples appear to have incorrect math, as compared to the written description of how they are supposed to work. This can leave the reader confused as to which is correct.

Similarly, because the details of the basic groundwork are partly contradictory, the reader is left with less confidence as the book becomes more complex.

This is a great book for someone who is already comfortable with the basics of options, but if you are looking for an introductory text on options, try "Options for Dummies" or a similar book.

After I finished reading Option Volatility and Pricing by Nattenberg (intense book, but good if you are into options) I picked up this book to detox my brain. This book tries to do many things, none of which it does particularly well, but the writer is definitely trying to provide value and in the psychological aspects of investing in options and a few of the other areas he definitely scored with me. If you have a good foundation of knowlledge about options already, you may benefit from the book, otherwise don't bother.

I think I need to agree with the previous reviewer and say that the book tries to do too much at first and combines futures and options. I found that other than this dual writing style, the book was easy to follow and did make sense when the author stayed on one topic instead of going back and forth. The book does discuss theories, deltas, gammas, and strategies but I thought that the placement in the book was poor. I did get some benefit from reading it but will probably purchase another book that is more devoted to only options.

McCafferty may be a trader, but he's no writer. The book is like a cascade of thoughts and knowledge with no organization. Here's a thought, if I want to learn about futures, I'll look for a book called "All About Futures". Poor math aside, instead of babbling on about Deltas and Offset strategies in the first chapter, how about telling me how to read a quote, and where to go to get them. The cover says "The best software programs for hedging or speculating". In fifteen pages of "info" he happens to mention ONE fairly specialized software program. After learning all of the fundamentals of Options and Options trading, I might find value in some of the points in this book, but by then I'm sure I will have found one with a much less confusing approach.

Knowing nothing about options, but something about stocks, etc. I bought this book on a whim and gave up midway through chapter 1, 'Understanding the Basics'. For laying out the basics, this chapter, and book for that matter, is too disorganized and goes off on too many tangents. It's as if the author loaded up on caffeine and did a brain dump with little planning as to what he really wanted the reader to learn.

Not wanting to give up on options yet, I read a few reviews and picked up 'Getting Started in Options' by Thomsett, which is much better written and organized. I'd highly recommend the book by Thomsett for those starting out.

I'll make one more stab at the book by McCafferty after finishing Thomsett since I paid for it, but do not recommend it for beginners.

This book was far too confusing and unorganized. It was almost as if the author dictated the whole book and constantly got off on tangents that left me baffled. Don't waste your money on this book!