Options Trading 101: From Theory to Application [Paperback]

Bill Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

Discover Powerful and Profitable Option Trading Strategies That Can Limit Your Risk While Multiplying Your Profits in Today's Markets. Options Trading 101 was written as a complete introductory guide for investors and traders who want to understand the world of options. While it is labeled as an introductory book, it is anything but a general overview. It starts by exploring the most fundamental concepts of options trading and ends with some basic strategies that traders will fully understand and be able to use immediately. In a clear, concise way readers will be led through the most important topics that are necessary to master and advance with options trading. Options Trading 101 makes use of many fun examples including Gordon Gekko's mistake in the hit movie "Wall Street" from not understanding put-call parity.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill Johnson brings a unique blend of real-world trading experience combined with academic theory. He is the founder of Options A to Z.com; a website dedicated to teaching the art & science of options trading to traders around the world.
His trading career began in 1995 after being hired by the discount giant, Charles Schwab, where he worked for an active trader options team in addition to specialized technical and fundamental analysis teams.
He gained invaluable experience while working rotations for Schwab's trade support desk, risk assessment, and initial public offerings (IPOs). Bill was also active in training and taught weeklong courses to hundreds of Schwab’s advanced brokers in Option Pricing and Hedging as well as Economics of Financial Markets and wrote the corresponding compliance-approved course manuals.
In 2000, he was hired by 21st Century Investor as the Chief Options Strategist and wrote eight books ranging from options, futures, forex, volatility, and the Federal Reserve. Three were selected as supplemental texts at universities. He created two online educational courses featuring options and single-stock futures where more than 300,000 students have enrolled worldwide. Bill was also a host for the 21st Century Alert Radio Show on WNN 1470AM.
In 2007, he became the Director of Education for Options University where he wrote Options 101: From Theory to Application and was a keynote speaker for many financial seminars, including a month-long tour in Australia, Singapore, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur.
He has articles published in Active Trader, Buy-Sell-Hold, SFO (Stocks, Futures, & Option), Investor’s Observer, and Smart Money magazines and has also been quoted in Barron’s. He was also invited to be a speaker for the Option’s Institute Master Sessions at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Quantitative and Computational Finance Day (QCF) at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Bill also teaches Financial Risk Management as an adjunct professor for Florida International University (FIU), which is one of the largest research universities in the country. He received a Master's Degree in Economics in 1996 and an M.B.A. in 1999 from the University of Central Florida.
 

Product Details

• Paperback: 449 pages
• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600372376
• ISBN-13: 978-1600372377
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An In-Depth Options Trading Education for $20, December 10, 2007

By 

John Roney (FAIRFAX, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Options Trading 101: From Theory to Application (Paperback)

Length:: 1:34 Mins

This is a quick review of the excellent stock options trading book written by Bill Johnson called Options Trading 101. -john


I had a chance to buy Bills book when I met him in person at an options trading seminar before the book was launched publically.

Bill is one of the traders for a company called Options University which teaches stock options trading. Bill's book hit number one on Amazon just after it launched, so a lot of other people must have thought it looked pretty good too.

I guess the simplest thing I can say about Bill's book is that there is a fully in-depth options trading education within the 449 pages of the book, and if you have the discipline to go through the book slowly, taking notes, you can get an education that others have paid hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars to recieve.

One of my favorite parts of Bill's book are the chapter review quizzes that he gives at the end of each chapter. Like any good teacher who teaches you something and then reviews with you to make sure you got it, Bill does just that with his end of chapter quizzes.

Bill goes from very beginner to rather advanced between the pages of this book and he does it in a pretty simply and easy to understand way, drawing a lot of connections to other real life matters to make understanding the more technical parts of trading a lot easier.

For a $20 book on options trading success, Bill's book is a no-brainer.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Typos are a Good Thing, January 27, 2008

By 

MarcHitect "Optionsorswim" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Options Trading 101: From Theory to Application (Paperback)

I'm one of those people that would rather read a book or magazine where I am learning something useful than some non-fiction thriller or social rag. And in this 400+ page book, let me tell you, I learned way more than I expected. Not only that, Bill's writing style enables you to really understand the concept so you won't forget them. This is because Bill Johnson really has a knack for making the most difficult concepts easy to understand. One example that only Bill could pull off is to equate high volatility to a kangaroo and low volatility to a frog. You'll have to read the book to see how it all ties together. After reading my fair share of options books, this book really stands out as a book that you can build a solid options trading foundation from. If you wanted to go read other books that covered the advanced topics in more detail (McMillan comes to mind) you would be much better off after reading this book.
So, I'm reading along, and I come across the occasional typos or editorial errors, no big deal, but in some cases the errors are serious. Some of the answers in the chapter-end quizzes are wrong; there are some math calculations that are wrong, and I gave it some thought. I realized this could be a good thing, that these editorial mishaps were asking me to make sure I was reading very carefully and making my own decisions. Of course there is enough information in each chapter to overcome any of the errors. But it felt good to know the material so well that I had the confidence and knowledge to know what the right answers should be.
A book like this, one that will be used for regular reference could also greatly benefit from an index.
For me this book was a turning point in my options trading development, so much so, that it inspired me to write my first Amazon review and give it the highest rating.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Proofreader was AWOL, July 6, 2008

By 

Richard A. Morgan (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Options Trading 101: From Theory to Application (Paperback)

This book had so many errors and blatant contradictions it was more confusing than the genealogy of Jesus. It will have your head spinning so fast some may mistake you for Linda Blair! The author blitzes the reader with math and details the understanding of which simply is unnecessary in order to trade options and could easily intimidate someone new to trading. The excessive errors found throughout the text are inexcusable, especially for a technical book. When practical applications are finally covered in the final third of the book, we aren't presented with anything really interesting. The Iron Condor strategy is mentioned once earlier but is quickly dismissed in a condescending manner as if someone who could thread through all that math wouldn't easily pick up that relatively simple concept! If you are new to trading and don't want to be more confused after you read this book than before you picked it up, this one should be avoided.