Increasing Alpha with Options: Trading Strategies Using Technical Analysis and Market Indicators (Bloomberg Financial) [Hardcover]

Scott H. Fullman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1576603652 | ISBN-13: 978-1576603659 | Edition: 1

Innovative trading strategies, which combine the use of technical analysis, market indicators, and options

In the new world of investing, money managers must deal with a variety of dynamics, products, analyses, and risk controls. They are also expected to achieve above-benchmark performance and profits, also known as alpha, as well as protect capital in the process. This can be difficult to achieve in today's turbulent market environment, but with Increasing Alpha with Options, author Scott Fullman, the Director of Derivative Investment Strategy for WJB Capital Group, offers some solid solutions.

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this reliable resource outlines various trading strategies using a combination of technical analysis, market indicators, and options. Along the way, it skillfully details how these analytical techniques can help you capture profits while also protecting positions from adverse market conditions.

• Details the varying elements of technical analysis, from chart type and analysis period to time itself
• Highlights how to build strategies around reversal and continuation patterns, oscillators, and exchange-traded funds
• Reveals how you can exploit small inefficiencies in the options marketplace

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, Increasing Alpha with Options will quickly familiarize you with everything from the various elements of technical analysis to leveraging the power of options, and show you how applying these tools and techniques to your trading or investing endeavors can improve overall performance.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

In today's extremely complicated markets, money managers face pressure as never before to increase alpha while protecting capital. Yet financial professionals must also be wary of changing market conditions that alter the strategies that will be most effective. Increasing Alpha with Options offers money managers an unexplored avenue for meeting  risk/return expectations.  By combining technical analysis with signals provided by options themselves, investors can uncover new trading opportunities. The book features a pragmatic, feet-on-the-ground approach to trading options, giving portfolio managers the best tools and strategies to improve return and more effectively manage risk.

From the Inside Flap

In today's extremely dynamic markets, most, if not all, money managers face pressure to increase alpha—above benchmark performance and profits—while protecting capital. Yet financial professionals must also be wary of changing market conditions that alter the strategies that will be most effective.

Nobody understands this better than author Scott Fullman, the Director of Derivative Investment Strategy for WJB Capital Group. Over the course of his career, he has successfully used technical analysis to create strategies using options, and now, he reveals how this effective approach can help you meet risk/return expectations in even the most turbulent market environments.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, Increasing Alpha with Options skillfully outlines various trading strategies using a combination of technical analysis, market indicators, and options. Page by page, Fullman shares his extensive experience with you, and offers professional money managers the best tools and techniques to improve returns while managing risk.

Along the way, you'll become familiar with numerous aspects of this approach and discover how it can put you in a better position to excel in today's markets. Topics touched upon include:

• The varying elements of technical analysis, from chart type and analysis period to time itself
• Building strategies around reversal and continuation patterns, oscillators, and exchange-traded funds
• Exploiting small inefficiencies in the options marketplace, which can offer profitable opportunities
• Using options in hedging techniques that can protect your positions
• And much more

Options used in conjunction with technical analysis can help you avoid financial pitfalls and achieve alpha. Understanding how to implement this approach in your everyday investment or trading endeavors can make a difference to your portfolio's bottom line, and this reliable resource will show you how.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Bloomberg Press; 1 edition (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576603652
• ISBN-13: 978-1576603659
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,114,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Use Options and Technical Analysis to Improve Performance, October 28, 2010

By 

Michael J. Ham (Fairfield, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Increasing Alpha with Options: Trading Strategies Using Technical Analysis and Market Indicators (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

Increasing Alpha with Options by Scott H. Fullman, CMT (Bloomberg Press, $55)

Because options expire, investing using them is a lot like humor--timing is everything. Fortunately, in this book, one is not only introduced to options strategies such as writing covered calls, strangles, and straddles, but is shown how to use basic technical analysis to determine the direction, magnitude, and speed of the underlying stock changes and thus the appropriate option contracts to capitalize on the expected stock price movement. More importantly, he goes on to spell out the risks involved and shares valuable rules of thumb from his 30+ years in financial services.

Mr. Fullman's book not only spells out the basics of options and technical analysis, but also shows how options can be used to hedge exposure in the real world to create positive alpha--performance better than that of the overall market. It should find a broad audience among pension fund, endowment, and hedge fund managers who seek to maximize returns while reducing risk. For individual investors seeking to earn better returns than a buy-and-hold strategy offers without taking on undue risk, it opens the door to a rich set of possibilities.

Both experienced and novice options investors will find the tables comparing various strategies for achieving an investment objective instructive. These tables compare the net cost, capital requirements, upside potential, downside risk, and break-even for strategies designed to accomplish the same objective, e.g., a bullish investment in a stock. By ranking each alternative strategy--long call, bullish call spread, bullish ratio spread, bull spread with short put, or outright purchase of the stock--investors can determine which strategy is most robust given their risk/reward preferences.

Michael J. Ham, CFA

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great title - weak follow through, August 2, 2011

By 

Jeronimo - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Increasing Alpha with Options: Trading Strategies Using Technical Analysis and Market Indicators (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

As an options trader with a bent on using technical analysis coupled with trading events (earnings, splits, economic reports, etc.) I was excited to try this book, as the title made me believe that it was right up my alley. However, unlike most other options books that I've read, I learned very little from this one. Fullman skims the surface on all subjects - options, technical analysis, and more, without offering much insight into any of them.

5.0 out of 5 stars Increasing Alpha With Options by Scott Fullman, September 13, 2011

By 

John Jacobs - See all my reviews

This review is from: Increasing Alpha with Options: Trading Strategies Using Technical Analysis and Market Indicators (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

Increasing Alpha With Options is a must for your reference library if you utilize covered call strategies with your investments. The book provides a unigue view of employing covered calls as a conservative investment tool. I own Mr. Fullman's first book, and I am amazed at his skill in explaining the use of options as an investment tool in explainable terms for every reader in his latest book.