Protective Options Strategies: Married Puts and Collar Spreads [Paperback]

Ernie Zerenner (Author), Michael Chupka (Author), Courtney Jenkins (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2008

How many stock positions have you entered after meticulous analysis only to have the stock move in the opposite direction that you anticipated?

It has happened to every trader the stock that got away.
Now you can prevent it from happening again. The secret to minimizing your risk and meeting your goals is the use of protective strategies you will find in this easy-to-use guide.

Using married puts and collar spreads, you will learn how to profit from growth stocks in an expanding market while at the same time limit the potential loss of capital from an unforeseen drop in the price of the stock. Both strategies allow investors to protect their investments and preserve hard-earned capital using simple options trades.

This practical guidebook, rich with illustrations and clear, real world examples, gives helps you:
Understand how to insure your portfolio against loss.
Define your maximum loss possible from you stock investments.
Learn how to pick the best investments with downside protection.
Gain management techniques to increase returns from a position of safety.
Introduce yourself to the best tools to find, compare, and analyze your investments.

If you are looking for a way to control and reduce risk in your stock portfolio this book is a must read. Start reading now to unlock the power of these strategies to protect your investments and generate income.
***

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

With more than 30 years of combine experience, both authors have tremendous knowledge of options investing. It was Ernie Zerenner s breakthrough technology that earned a patent and became PowerOpt.com, which supports his covered call investments. Power Financial Group, Inc. is the trading company Ernie established in 1997. Today, Ernie and his staff at Power Financial continue to innovate and seek ways to help investors grow through options trading.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Marketplace Books (November 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592803423
• ISBN-13: 978-1592803422
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,021,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A printed infomercial, June 28, 2010

By 

K. L. Salm "Lib-Basher" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Protective Options Strategies: Married Puts and Collar Spreads (Paperback)

This book is informative and somewhat educational, but can not be fully utilized without a suscription to PowerOptions, a service proffered by the authors. So, in that regard, the book is really just a teaser to hook you into getting an online subscription to their service at $98.00 per month. That is not a problem in itself as long as you are forewarned that the book will have very limited effectiveness for your investment pursuits without the service. I can't comment on the online service because I have not subscribed except fot the 1 month trial. I was impressed with the thoroughness of the features and the options screening, so I'm sure the service is worth a look if you are seriously into options. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that the book alone will get you very far.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars New Trader's Option book, April 13, 2011

By 

Steve Burns (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Protective Options Strategies: Married Puts and Collar Spreads (Paperback)

This book is a good basic start for beginning option traders to learn the most simple option strategies. It explains married puts and option collar strategies and how to trade them. The reader will have a good understanding of these strategies when they finish reading this book.

One problem is that there is really very, very, few times you should ever use a married put(Insurance on a position you do not want to close due to tax implications, maybe). The reason why is that a simple long in-the-money call option gives you the same thing as a married put with very little capital. A call option gives you the upside of the underlying stock with a very limited downside (the cost of the call). Your call option will lose time value the same way that your long put would lose time value in your married put trade. Mathematically it is the same trade just much less capital.

Another thing I found disturbing was recommending the put be +9% away from your stock price. Good grief a 9% loss is ridiculous, and that is your protection? The author says it protects you from the big gap downs that your stop loss will miss due to overnight risk and the stock opening much lower. For me 9% is a huge loss. With a call option you have much less risk to your capital for this kind of strategy. The put in the married put should be much closer to benefit from the insurance (Maybe 3% out-of-the-money).

The book also explains how to trade option collars: short option- long stock-long put. The problem is option collars have high commissions to open and close so many legs and they just do not have good returns, even the best case scenarios give you small profits. Iron butterflies and Iron Condors are the most popular option trading strategies because they are the most consistently profitable with the least risk.

While this book has good basic information about the strategies presented it feels more like the authors are pushing their website than showing that these methods are valid and profitable. After reading this book I do not believe in these strategies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sensible, accessible, October 11, 2009

By 

Edward Woodhouse (Troy, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Protective Options Strategies: Married Puts and Collar Spreads (Paperback)

This book is written much like Zerenner's weekly commentary: straightforward, succinct, sensible. The book's title is a good representation of the contents: An extended reminder to protect against downturns in individual stocks and in the market as a whole. I am among the vast majority of ordinary investors who fail to take adequate precautions, and this introduction to married puts and collar spreads was illuminating for me. The authors minimize complicated Greek calculations touted by many options books, in part because they want readers to use their web site [...] for such calculations, and in part because "These types of criteria are not important when you are screening for either of these protective strategies" (married puts and collars). Three minor criticisms: There is no discussion of covered LEAPS, which I regret; the book lacks an index; and the graphics are too small for older eyes. Nevertheless, I highly recommend Protective Options Strategies for investors who fall somewhere between beginning and advanced traders.