Options Made Easy: Your Guide to Profitable Trading (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

by Guy Cohen (Author) "Why is it that options are so misconceived as a minefield of danger and risk?..." (more)
Key Phrases: covered call, time decay, synthetic call, Options Made Easy, Bull Put, Second Edition (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"The best book on options I have ever come across."- Alpesh Patel, best-selling author of "Trading Online "and "Mind of a Trader" "Incredibly well presented - actually makes you want to learn about options if you are a novice, and for the expert teaches you huge amounts you never knew. The diagrams, charts and illustrations are exactly what is needed for a potentially complex subject and turns it exactly into what it says on the cover - Options Made Easy. Very thorough. Very accessible." "Guy's approach in using well illustrated diagrams is the most effective way" "to understand the concepts and intricacies of options trading. This book" "will guide you through the popular strategies adopted by traders at all" "levels. "Options Made Easy "is definitely a valuable addition to any trader's" "library. It's one of the best investments I have ever made." J Pau, Australia --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Options trading offers unparalleled opportunity for rapid profit, but most options guides are difficult to understand and even harder to use successfully. Not this one. Options Made Easy has earned a worldwide reputation for simplicity, clarity, and practical value. In this thoroughly revamped Second Edition, renowned options trader Guy Cohen delivers even more of what makes this book so valuable: better graphics for easy visual learning, updated hands-on examples that walk step by step through real trades, and the clearest plain-English explanations of trading techniques you'll find anywhere. Unlike its competitors, Options Made Easy, Second Edition shows you how to design your own trading plan for high probability trades and consistent profits, offering proven strategies you can begin using right now. Best of all, Cohen teaches through easy-to-understand charts and graphs, not complicated math! Coverage includes: filtering for moving stocks; selecting the right strategy for each situation; bull call and put spreads; covered calls; straddle/strangle; volatility and sideways strategies; trading and investing psychology; and much more. This edition also contains a completely revamped introduction to the Greeks-- the standard sensitivities to options risk characteristics that every trader must know.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 2 edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131871358
• ISBN-13: 978-0131871359
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,766 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #12 in	Books > Business & Investing > Investing > Options
  #21 in	Books > Business & Investing > Investing > Futures
  #90 in	Books > Business & Investing > Popular Economics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Options Made TOO Easy, April 5, 2007

By	Bryan "Bryan" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

First off, I want to say that I definitely didn't dislike this book. It's a solid introduction to options trading and it covers an awful lot of material. My issue with the book is that it tried to cover too many things by not fleshing out the details on many topics. As another reviewer pointed out, there are much better options (no pun intended) if you want to learn about fundamental or technical analysis. Frankly, depending on your time horizon, if you don't have an understanding of analysis of either kind you probably shouldn't even think about trading options. But back to the book; I do wish it had more on options trading strategies. Explanations of the vertical spreads are good, but then there's just a long 'strategy table' in the back that glosses over strangles, butterflies, condors, backspreads, etc. without providing any meaningful detail on how they should be used. Topics like volatility, essential to understanding premiums, are also touched on too lightly. I don't normally care for statements like "it would take another book in itself to explain this," but I swear it was repeated 3 or 4 times.

Options are a tool to limit risk, but misused they can be very risky. This book does a good job of describing what options are and some basic ways in which they're used (e.g., if you think a stock will go down, buy a put or sell a call), but it didn't provide me with enough information to successfully prepare myself to trade options.

I would look to other options books before this one unless you just want a very basic primer to read before you delve into the real meat of options trading.

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good addition to the investing library, November 29, 2006

By	Big Daddy (TN) - See all my reviews

While this book does a good job in explaining several common option techniques, the title is somewhat misleading as I don't think a subject as complicated as options trading can ever be "made easy." Reading the book is much like reading a text book or an owner's manual. The author does a good job in boiling down the strategies to their essence and presents them in multiple ways so that people who learn graphically instead of by reading can pick up the strategies easier. The book's shortfall is that it spends a lot of time discussing investment basics such as fundamental analysis and technical analysis. While those are certainly important, I would have preferred that more time been spent on discussing different options strategies because if a person doesn't already know a fair amount about analyzing stocks he has no business trading options in any event. Still, I view this as a handy reference tool and expect that I will refer to it regularly. It is the best book on the subject that I have ever read and unlike a lot of strategy books, does not waste a bunch of your time by trying to suck more money out of you by selling you a proprietary trading product.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Outstanding!! , September 7, 2006

By	G. Hooper (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I didn't know anything about options, and had come to Amazon to find a book that I could read that would cover the basics and hopefully go over practical trading strategies that a novice could execute. Well, I read the customer reviews on this book, at the time 9 reviews, all 5 out of 5.

I'm very glad I bought the book! The author covers the basics of options in a very clear, concise and easy to follow way. The author also covers a lot of option trading strategies, and discloses how he trades. The examples are excellent, and easy to follow.

The author also goes over the myths associated with options, and also the pitfalls (i.e. buying options with 1 month left to expiry, like a lot of option newsletters seem to recommend but he certainly does not, quite the opposite).

If you want to read up on options, you can't go wrong with this book.