Customer Reviews

The Options Playbook, Expanded 2nd Edition: Featuring 40 strategies for bulls, bears, rookies, all-stars and everyone in between.

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I consider myself a basic option trader. Up until I read this book covered calls and cash-secured put selling were the only option strategies I used and I was doing quite well until the sub-prime mortgage debacle. After taking a substantial hit to my account I decided to try to learn how to make money in an up and down market, so I bought a few books on options and planned to advance my education. My issue was I could not get through them because they were so math heavy or so boring that it just wasn't possible to stay awake while reading. The options playbook was just the right speed and density. It explains how to set up each strategy and provides a heads up to many of the pitfalls of each play. It does it in a VERY user friendly, easy to understand format. Also, it has a ingenious spiral binding which makes it possible to lay the book flat on the desk turned to the page you need, because of this it is the only book I keep next to my computer. I use it all the time for a quick reference or just a simple sanity check before I enter my long put spreads. I do wish it had a little more detail on how to exit positions. I have found this to be an issue with my other options books, so I had to learn the old fashion way - by doing. I did some research on author and found out that he has many free archived webinars on the Chicago Board Options Exchanges site ([...]). They are an excellent follow up to the book if you want more detail on a particular strategy and I also noticed his blog is posted inside his author page.

Having recently started working as a writer for an investment research company, this book has proven to be most helpful with my understanding of options. As an English major, I had no experience with the world of options, which is quite intimidating for someone without a financial background! This book nicely broke down options and option strategies, with a sense of humor that actually made it fun to read! I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in options, as this book is a delightful read for those venturing into the world of option trading!

In my opinion this book is excellent for new traders but I do not see a lot in it for more more experienced traders familiar with more complex strategies. The author is the senior analyst for Trade King so at times drifts into some plugs for the broker. However the writer has written a basic informative book with little dashes of humor and personality.
What you get with this book is a over sized glossy book bound like a very large spiral note book. I personally find the size of this book cumbersome. The book contains 40 basic option strategies for different market environments. You have plays for betting with the bulls, bears, or on range bound markets. There are strategies for profiting from capital gains on stocks, stocks going down, or delta neutral strategies for profiting on theta (time value deterioration) in options you have sold short.

Each strategy defines:

The Break even at expiration.
The Sweet Spot for maximum potential profit.
The maximum potential loss.
The possible margin requirement for each play.
It explains the effect of time decay for each of the plays.
The effects of changing implied volatility on each play.

The book also has option guy's tips on each play.

At the beginning of the book the author takes the time to explain every term used in options trading from the terms put and call all the way to the Greeks. He does a great job of explaining the pit falls of low volume options and the right time frames to play for different legs of his plays. You will learn all the players in the option game and how to properly roll your option plays

Excellent and easy to read and understand, step by step guide book for new option traders. Will be redundant for experienced option traders.

I purchased the first edition and was very satisfied. When the second edition came out, I purchased it, too. The second edition is even better than the first. It has a bunch more strategies and more general information. I think that it is a really good general reference to have if you are an options trader or a student. It explains in sufficient detail the various strategies and how to employ these strategies. I have given this as a gift to friends who are interested in options. I can't speak highly enough of the book, it contents or it's author. I've met the author, BTW, and he is a great guy. I would recommend this book without reservation to anyone who is interested in self-directed options trading.

If you are interested in adding options to your array of investments and you have no background using them, this is a great educational tool to help you get started. Well written, clear and precise, it stays out of the weeds and gives you enough instruction to ensure you'll understand most straightforward trades before you make them.

This book has a lot of good strategies to it. There are ways to play volatility, trends, theta decay, spreads and many other strategies. Brian Overby, the author, tends to buy options where I may go more toward selling premium, but the ideas are similar, the set up is slightly different. Some may find this book to be 'too much'. For those, I recommend starting out with the easier strategies and get a handle on how the options work. Advance when the options are having good success for you. For those that think it may be too simplified, I don't believe getting into more detail of the gamma or rho factors in an option is going to improve your trading. I think the idea is to understand how the strategies work, find 2-3 that you can use in the market condition, and use them to trade. No need to know every product and way of trading, they all won't work at any point in time.

I have used this book as I look at my charts and look for strategies that may work for the stocks on my watch list.

Easy to use, written in plain simple terms and a great tool to have by the monitors.

I do recommend and use this book.

The book goes over every option strategy that you will ever need for whatever situation. It explains, graphs, and walks you through each in good detail. It always mentions the best, worst, and medium outcomes for each strategy, as well as the effects of time and price.

2 things I wish I would have seen in the book:
- real examples of each strategy in use (or well, at least the most relevant ones)
- more explanation of the greeks and examples of them (it barely touches on gamma at all for example, but then again that's the least important of the greeks)

Yet the book does tell you in the beginning that it will do neither of those two things, so bummer. Everything else it does a great job at though. I think this is a must have for new, intermediate, or advanced options traders. You will certainly go back to it over and over again as a reference guide.

The book is well worth the price. Pay up.

As the author of the book Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques I wanted to add the timing of candlesticks to the leverage of options. And Brian's book was the perfect vechicle for me to get up to speed on options for this project. His book belongs on every options trader book shelf. Steve Nison

I have a Intermediate understanding of options and how they perform.
This book still helps me out alot especially the Chapter on the 40 plays, If I want to refresh my mind on how an Iron Condor is set up and its characteristics/ profit/loss diagram, I go to that play and he tells it like it is without confusing its reader.

As well, I like that it is spiral bound as I can fold the book on whatever play I am studying. I use the book and on the web to set up virtual trades, then to see how each play moves with the market.
Read and further your educatuion into the "greeks".....The greeks are like a key to your front door. You wil be lost and discouraged if you have "no idea" of what they are and how they affect premiums.
Delta,Gamma,Theta and Vega are the 4 Greeks, there is a 5th Greek, Rho but
for most applications traders grasp the first 4 I mentioned.


I have watched Brian on CBOE's webinars as well as the Trade King Webinars and I find he is an excellent teacher in the amounted time he has on each webinar.

I hope he updates another book for the more " Mid-Advanced" option trader in the future.

For now there is alot to cover in Options playbook, Straddle, Strangle, Condor anyone??

Unfortunately, author did not provide specific examples involving equities and its price. Confusing at times. Too bad could have been a very good book.