Customer Reviews

Option Strategies: Profit-Making Techniques for Stock, Stock Index, and Commodity Options, 2nd Edition

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Option Strategies is an excellent intermediate treatise on option trading. While it doesn't go deeply into option pricing and implied volatility, its focus on strategy and decision structure serves the reader well. Almost every major position type, from the basic buys and writes to the more complex, such as ratio spreads and butterflies are covered. Each position is dissected in detail, with emphasis on how to deal with adverse and positive price impacts.

In the pantheon of trading tomes, Courtney Smith's work should appeal to those looking for a sound foundation in option strategy. It is one place where a trader can look at any idea and figure out which type of play offers the best risk/reward alternatives. A solid non-technical book.

As a person who has always found option strategies to be quite confusing, this book is a god-send! Mr. Smith's book is the only options strategy book that I've ever read that gives a concise and clear decision tree on what strategy to use in what market conditions. Anyone who is a serious options trader and wants to be profitable needs this book in their library!

This book contains absolutely no information on how to judge whether a particular option is over- or under-priced, or how to arrive at either a bullish or bearish outlook. The idea is that you have already come to some conclusion and then you consult the book to determine how you should play the option. That would be fine if the book did not contain numerous errors, all due to the fact that this book apparently was not proof-read. For example, if your outlook is bullish, you find the strategy for putting on a call spread, and select the type of spread you want to do. The author then copied the same instructions into the section on bear spreads, and then tried to change all the "calls" to "puts" or the "buys" to "sells." Of course, he missed many such changes, and there are multiple instances where the word "call" appears where it should read "put," and where "buy" appears when it should be "sell." If you buy this book, you will have to make your own corrections in it, or you may follow the instructions right into the poorhouse. I consider the money I spent on this book to be wasted.

The bad news: This is a classic textbook that requires all your attention and more. Even an experienced option trader can get lost easily. The good news: It is a comprehensive guide and reference book which I use once a week to help me choose the right move.