An Introduction to Options Trading (Securities Institute) [Paperback]

Frans de Weert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470029706 | ISBN-13: 978-0470029701 | Publication Date: September 11, 2006 | Edition: 1

Explaining the theory and practice of options from scratch, this book focuses on the practical side of options trading, and deals with hedging of options and how options traders earn money by doing so.  Common terms in option theory are explained and readers are shown how they relate to profit.  The book gives the necessary tools to deal with options in practice and it includes mathematical formulae to lift explanations from a superficial level.  Throughout the book real-life examples will illustrate why investors use option structures to satisfy their needs.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“An Introduction to Options Trading is a pleasurable book to read. The simplicity of the language and exposition make it accessible to a wide spectrum of interested readers, especially to option traders. Although no rigorous mathematics is discussed in this book, the formulas used are well motivated and explained.”

Karma Dajani, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

An Introduction to Options Trading is one of the first books to explain where the profit of option traders really comes from. Although people usually assume that this profit relates to bid-offer spreads, this book actually shows that there is a much more sophisticated way of making money when trading options.

This book shows why investors use option structures to satisfy their needs, and what practical implications these option structures have on the trader.

Explaining the theory and practice of options trading from scratch, the reader will quickly become familiar with delta hedging, gamma, vega and theta and how these terms relate to the trader’s profit. Throughout the book real-life examples will be used to explain the practicalities of options bringing the theory behind options to life.

After reading An Introduction to Options Trading the reader will understand how options can be tailored to an investor’s needs. The book will give the reader an understanding of the incredible potential of making money through options and will equip him with the necessary tools to deal with options in practice.

About the Author

Frans de Weert is mathematician by training who is currently working as an equity derivatives trader at Barclays Capital, New York. After obtaining his masters in Mathematics, specializing in probability theory and financial mathematics at the University of Utrecht, he went on to do a research degree, M.Phil, in probability theory at the University of Manchester.

After his academic career he started working as trader for Barclays Capital in London. In this role he gained experience in trading many different derivative products on European and American equities. After two and half years in London, he moved to New York to start trading derivatives on both Latin American as well as US underlyings. Frans de Weert lives in New York city.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470029706
• ISBN-13: 978-0470029701
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,783,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Excellent, February 23, 2008

By 

Dennis Murphree (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Introduction to Options Trading (Securities Institute) (Paperback)

This book is a truly excellent options introduction. I have used it as a complement to both Hull's text and Wilmott's text, and it has really solidified my understanding. de Weert ties together and writes in a more easily digestible form the take home points from the other more technical books. I highly, highly recommend this book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best option introduction available!, March 7, 2007

By 

S. Barton (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Introduction to Options Trading (Securities Institute) (Paperback)

As a professional equity options trader I recommend this book to all those wanting to make a start in the world of options trading but realise the importance of a good theoretical grounding before risking their hard earned money. I recommend this book to all the junior traders I have trained and worked with.

Mr. deWeert has lead the field with this book, cutting though the mathematical jargon and explaining simply the concepts which are so often over complicated. Bravo Mr. de Weert!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for traders, March 3, 2007

By 

a reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Introduction to Options Trading (Securities Institute) (Paperback)

This book is the most powerful book on options as it makes the dynamics of options intuitive by focussing on its economics while at the same time providing the mathematics behind it. All this is achieved by using real life investment strategies as examples. The culmination of this book is that it shows the relation between all the Greeks and the profit of a delta hedged option. The book can easily be used as a manual for traders as it gives guidelines as to when to early exercise options and the correlation exposure of composite or quanto option to name just two examples. Any trader or sales man in investment banking should use this as a manual.