Customer Reviews

The LEAPS Strategist: 108 Proven Strategies for Increasing Investment & Trading Profits

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book shows great strategys for long term option investing. Makes it easy and simple. Anyone who knows options will like Leaps because the strategys are much more flexible. Highly recommend the book as user friendly and useful. I am going to use a lot of the things like using Leaps instead of jsut buying stocks. Good stuff!

Only one word adequately describes this book:- "EXCELLENT!"

The author not only describes, in detail, and, with numerous examples for clarity, all the advantages of using LEAPS in your investment program, but he also goes into details of the negative aspects, or the downside, of each of these strategies.

Unlike many other books on the subject of options, Mr. Thomsett discusses their use from the perspective of the small investor (using 100 share lots) and not, as in various other publications, institutionally sized lots of 40-50 options (which is 4-5000 shares each time).

In order to obtain the full benefit from this book though, you need to be already conversant with trading options.

A good entry point for this would be a previous book of his:- "Getting Started in Options", or, even better, my personal favorite:- "Using Options to Buy Stocks" by Dennis Eisen.

Perhaps the only fault with the book is the point that it really should have been published in hard cover, thereby better allowing it to stand up to the heavy use that it will undoubtedly receive.

I recently decided that LEAPS options offer some advantages that I ought to be taking advantage of in the future. I have a cursory knowledge of LEAPS and have employed them in the past, but I decided a refresher course was in order both to reacquaint me with basic LEAPS concepts and to inform me of any relevant info about current LEAPS offerings. THE LEAPS STRATEGIST failed on both counts.

This book was written for readers who already understand LEAPS fundamentals and are interested in their use in, I will say, sophisticated applications that far exceed my objectives. I have no reason to believe the book would not be perfectly suitable for those readers. But the book simply does not provide what I was seeking.

While this book provides a lot of strategies, a lot of the strategies are just very close variations of other strategies. The strategies overlap significantly. The book seems to repeat itself a lot. I believe it contains a few errors and makes some major oversimplifications. For those reasons, this book is not for the novice investor.

It's worth the price, because you will find something in this book that will make money for you.

The 108 powerful strategies lined out in this comprehensible guide by author Michael C. Thomsett help you both to advance your investing and trading techniques and to achieve your financial goals. Real-world examples and graphic illustrations point out the main keys of this book. Not only are LEAPS a low-risk alternative to buying stock, they are also a great way to maximize your capital.

I would prefer to purchase a book that I could NOT write myself. Most of the strategies in this book are not unique to LEAPS.
"Purchase LEAPS Calls" Duh?
"Purchase LEAPS Puts" Duh again!
Having said that, the author does makes succint points throughout the book, shares a lot of much needed common sense when it comes to trading and there are indeed some interesting strategies to make you think, such as purchasing stocks by shorting the put - again, not necessarily a LEAPS strategy though one stands a better chance over a period of 3 years to be successful.
The author also does a good job in emphasizing - again and again - the benefits of LEAPS in terms of minimizing risk.
Based on the title I was expecting 108 strategies unique to LEAPS and there are interspersed throughout the book (I will not spill the beans and you will have to purchase (or borrow) the book for that) but those strategies are a fraction of the book - maybe a dozen. Cetainly not 108 of them.

I did give it 3 stars though because for me, if I pick up 2 or 3 good pointers from a book and they prove to be successful or even if the book has given me some food for thought it is already worth the investment - but that's just me.
Another fantastic tool in the book is the index at the back of the book. The index itself is split in two - you have got the strategies listed by chapter as well as listed alphabetically.
Any index is useful especially when it is set out in the manner as it is in this book.
As already mentioned by previous reviews - this one is not for the novice nor does it pretend to be.
Good luck.

This is NOT a book for traders or those experienced in options. There are not 108 strategies.....maybe 10.8 would be more
accurate. Mr. Thomsett is a professional writer and not a professional trader or investor. He makes money from writing books
not from the strategies he shares. This is another covered call book and talking about it from dozens of different ways, but the
bottom line is the same as all the others, selling a call/LEAP against a covered position generates income and reduces risk. The
writing sometimes seems to actually be exhausting for the author as he goes round-and-round again and again about some
variation of the covered call strategy. Like he started the book with a challenge to identify the magic 108 strategies. He was not
going to stop until he got there.....glad that's over!

There are few examples and none is complete detail, providing underlying price, entry date, bid/ask, volatility, etc., the details you need
to understand any new trading idea and to show that the author 'knows' what he is talking about. If you want to demonstrate expertise,
provide the details, provide the numbers, and show how the trade really worked out. This is a 'theory' book, not hands on.

I have traded options for the past 12 years, and there is nothing new here BUT the idea that using LEAPs can provide a significant
benefit as both the buyer or seller of the LEAP. Having mostly traded short/medium term option, using LEAPs could provide some
advantages. For that I am grateful. The book is WAY too long. It all could have been said in 50pages rather than 295. It is misleading
as there are not '108 proven strategies', only a handful and BTW, who proved them? Not the author. There is no reference to ANY real
trades or anyone having any real money at risk. The 'proven strategies' seem to be nothing but 'hear say'.

Save your money on this one, there are MUCH better option books available....just don't forget that longer dated options may offer
some benefits.

In this book the author reviews many IDEAS involving LEAPS but in my opinion none of them are covered in enough detail to stand alone as full fledged strategies.

For example the topic of using LEAPS as a substitute for stocks in a covered call strategy only gets maybe 8 or 9 pages in this book. I have read other books where almost 100 pages are devoted to this strategy alone.

The author is also flat out wrong about one thing:

Page 251...."Many index options, however, are traded using the European Style rules. Under that system, positions cannot be closed or sold before expiration"

Oops I hope that's just a typo.