Customer Reviews

The Complete Option Player

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

 

 

Kenneth R. Trester explains trading methods and things to avoid in options. He describes ways you can be cheated, and he gives advice in how to manage options investments. Whatever you do, do not yield to the temptation to subscribe to his newsletter, "The Trester Complete Option Report." In his book, he correctly shows that successful options trading requires a lot of research, and he comes across as the expert. He says, "Of course in The Option Report we do all this work for you. We're searching for home run candidates for you all the time." Do not believe it. You expect your results to resemble the track record published in the newsletter. They do not. His track record looks impressive because he uses option purchase prices much lower than what you can buy them for. I went exactly by his advice for several months, and lost money on every trade. A better book on options is "Getting Started in Options" by Michael C. Thomsett. This book provides good definitions for all the terminology and has many, many examples and why each is good or bad.

If you are brand new to options and you are not the visual type (there isn't a single graph in this book) and you like cute little cartoons, then this book is for you.

Most of this book focuses on various naked strategies which work great in certain markets, but can be instant death in others. Also, there is very limited information on resources to use in your research.

From a literary point, the flow of the book is quite good, so I could see someone reading it from cover-to-cover. If you are a self-help person, you'll love this book, but you will still have the same issue that after you finish it, you may feel better, but you aren't any smarter.

Go do some searches on the web for info. Optionetics.com, optionvue.com, and 21stCenturyOptionsEducation.com are all good places to start. _The Stock Market Course_ by Fontanills and Gentile (Optionetics) is great and for general trading info and an attitude adjustment, check out _Trading for a Living_ by Elder.

Happy Trading!

This was very disappointing. I bought this and his newsletter which lost lots of money. I wish I had stuck with other option experts than try this unknown Mr. Trester. Lives up at Tahoe financing a life style from selling his opinion.

The book is just a retelling of the simple option strategies that other authors have adequately covered. No vision and no new angle.

I have bought other books that were easy to understand and got to the point. I used the Amazon Top 10 option bestsellers to find the best books and have only been disappointed by this one. At least I can return it to Amazon for a credit and buy the right book next time.

Retire Mr. Trester. It is time.

This book is too simple and the goal is selling you the subscription service.

I subscribed to the newsletter service and lose money on every trades, the strategies did not work.

For an education in options this book is a double-edged sword. You will learn far more than you ever may have thought there was to options but, if you aren't careful, you can break your brain on the information.

My greatest reason for speaking in favor of Trester is simply this: he takes some of the long upheld principles of sound stock investment and translates them to options investing. That alone gives the book value. In addition, he shows you how it is possible, using options, to generate a regular income instead of simply buying stock and generating income when it goes up, though that is not necessarily a bad idea. Until I read this book, I would have only thought that possible with a business or real estate. I was wrong and I'm grateful.

Having said that, the shortcomings of the book are equally revealing. The comprehensiveness of the book actually works against it. While it was very enlightening to learn about futures contracts and their related options, it was not long before I ended up skipping all those chapters because Trester (rightly) warns of this as soemthing only much further down the line. Thus anything beyond a brief introduction (and the book goes WAY beyond it) to this area is a waste of pages.

Furthermore, I was disappointed by the scarcity, almost complete lack, of number work. Trester instead recommended using the included charts, using a piece of software (namely HIS software), or subscribe to his newsletter (he has another one that may or may not have replaced the one named in his book). While it's understandable that Trester would not advocate gathering the data and working the formulas manually when there are dozens of programs to do the work for you, by barely discussing those formulas he comes across as advising the reader to skip the education, let the work be done for you and accept the results of the workhorse. To that, I can only say two words: technical foul.

In fairness, some of those numbers DO just have to be accepted in the end (like the fair value of a given option) because it is nothing more than a matter of time and statistics, and generating those numbers for yourself is reinventing the wheel. That however is the exception and not the rule.

In conclusion, if you want an eye-opening first book to introduce you to options, I can honestly recommend this one. If you want a single definitive reference to use for the rest of your options trading career, either keep your money altogether, or be ready to pony up again for a book to supplement this one.

If you are a fan of Lawrence McMillian and love to thread through pages of frivolous information, you probably won't enjoy this book.

The Complete Option Player is 46 chapters and 500 pages of powerful information. Once you begin reading, you won't want to put this book down.

You will find insider secrets and other advice that you will not find anywhere else.

Chapter 38 - Option pricing is probably the most important chapter in the book, especially for new traders. Trester also includes call and put option tables to assist the investor.

Overall, a very good book and a great supplement to Wall Street Money Machine #1 and #2. I would also recommend Wall Street Money Machine #4, which is all about option trading in addition to this book.

I bought a 13-week subscription to his newsletter after reading this book; the book is pretty good [although they leave a lot of information out--I would like more information on how the "Option Trading Box" works. I thought this would be in the e-mail newsletter or on his Website--it's NOT].

The part that bothers me about his Website newsletter: his exit points--which he says are so important in the book--are nonexistent on the Website. It's not very well presented, and I would give his newsletter a 1: pretty risky, low returns.

I think I also do better trading on my own than I would with his help from looking at his current issue and archives. I papertraded a couple of his trades, and they're not doing all that well. STICK WITH THE MOTLEY FOOL!! At least they prorate your subscription if you don't like it!

There are NO refunds for the newsletter.

Good solid information about options trading. It is indeed 'Complete'. I am annoyed, however, that this 'revised and updated' edition persists in using antiquated fractional notation in the charts and text. Thus throughout the book you see prices listed as 4-7/8 or 10-1/4. Converting this book to decimals would have forced Mr. Trester to use modern examples, instead of those from the 1970's and that would have also benefited this fine work. The option tables in the back of the book at least are in decimal form and should prove quite useful.

This is one of the best options books I have read. Ken Trester
gives details of what situations to apply the strategies instead
of the usual boring options books that just describe the strat-
egies. His newsletter services are very good. I have tracked the
trades in his Put and Call Tactician newsletter and most of them
have performed admirably - he even recommended AAPL Put just
before the stock collapsed.

This is a great book. I was losing money with options until I did what was outlined in this book. I would recommend it to anybody.