Customer Reviews

Put Options : How to Use This Powerful Financial Tool for Profit & Protection

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

 

 

I found this to be a very good discussion of a strategy that I was already considering - Selling PUT options. The author makes a compelling argument for this approach and adds some additional twists to the idea that I had not considered. If you have a reasonable amount of capital to start working with, probably 20K+, you could implement this type of strategy with good results. Less capital than that and you will probably start to see the effects of brokerage fees eating up too much of you profits if you try to diversify.

Overall, a very good book - the one downside is that in the book the author keeps mentioning a software program he had written to help you implement the system, but after much searching, including on his website, I was not able to find it. Too bad, it sounded like a very helpful program.

One-third of the book is an advertising of a strategy. Or maybe it just sounds like an infomercial?

One-fifth of the book is tables of almost all stocks and almost all options. Why?

And, as mentioned before, where is that tool that helps in calculating the selection parameters? It is actually one of the most ridiculous (and negative)points of the book. Here: "You are probably thinking that you could spend every waking hour doing this analysis. Fortunately, you do not have to. The automated toolkit I developed will allow most investors to properly analyze...portfolio in less than 30 minutes". Right. Good. Where is it?

As I said, the book is on a silly side as it tries to explain the strategy to ones who do not know what an option is.

The strategy and ideas (diversification, unpredictability of stock prices, the notion that the strategy does not guarantee gains all the time, factors to consider, etc.)in this book are not bad.

Mark LaMoure, Boise, ID

Author Jeffery M. Cohen's: 'PUT OPTIONS' is an very good, 4 Gold Star book explaining Put Options for investing. I found out that Put Options are a highly effective investing tool for success, even more than I thought previously. The book shows you how to use Put's for profit and protection. Put's are the opposite of Call Options. Put Options are only used only on a stock's FALLING price line, v.s. Call Options which are always used on a stock's RISING price line. I discovered the author explaining complete, well-written explanations for doing Put Option investing. You'll find PUT OPTIONS to be a top shelf book, offering precious insights for your investing.

That being said, Mr. Cohen writes a golden book with 17 chapters, deeply analyzing the subject of Put Options. I appreciated it when he described their valuable benefits in detail. Jeffery gives you 8 rules that will save you money and help you make valuable profits. Easy to understand, the book gives you top notch answers and important strategies to use. Cohen's book is comprehensive, has 304 pages, 4 Appendix's, Copyright 2003.

Conclusion: PUT OPTIONS will ignite a new fire in your purpose to invest. I appreciated that Jeffery Cohen gives you a one-of-a-kind text, teaching how to use Put Options for your best benefit. This book merits your attention. Recommendation: Buy it, because its one of the finest books I've ever seen written in 12 years on the subject of Put Option investing. The book is for serious option traders who want to make bigger money.

This book does an excellent job at explaining Put Options and why you need to use them. You'll never just buy a stock again, selling the Put Option is ALWAYS a smarter move.

The author has an interesting thesis for investing solely using a hedged set of Put options. After doing some analysis it does appear that the concept has merit, at least during times of high market volatility. At other times it appears that the premiums do not exceed the trade commisions -- at least with my brokerage.

The author must have had a minimum word requirement in his publishing contract because he took an inordinate amount of space to define his reasonably simple concept.

If you were like most investors, you would leap at the opportunity to earn consistent double-digit stock market returns with greatly reduced risk. This excellent book on Put Options introduces you to an innovative, proven program designed to do just that--produce consistent and regular stock market returns while minimizing the risk of losing those returns during a down market.
The secret, as described in detail in the book, is in implementing a low-maintenance, easy-to-follow program of selling put options on quality stocks while hedging those investments by buying puts on the overall market. Far easier to implement and track than it sounds, this strategy is frequently used by institutional investors, whose reputations and careers depend on garnering decent returns without assuming unnecessary risk.
Put Options explains this proven technique in terms that virtually any investor can understand and implement. The rare investment book that supports its claims by providing the actual results of actual trades using actual household-name stocks, Put Options provides a step-by-step template on how you can use author Jeffrey Cohen's SafetyNet program.
This book is for the individual small investor that makes his own investment decisions. The existing base of such investors is huge, and growing rapidly, as evident by the subscriber growth rates of the online brokers. The reasons for these investors making their own decisions and thus controlling the performance of their portfolios is quite clear when you consider the following scenario:
The savvy investor is no longer content making a 2% annual return in a passbook savings account or 4% on a Bank Certificate of Deposit. Some mutual funds may do a little better than this but their performance is not always consistent.

Today, everyone wants his or her money put to hard work, aggressively generating more money. Since the stock market outperforms all other investments over time, people are increasing turning to the stock market and the options market, where much higher rates of return can be made with relative small increase in risk to capital.

Before the later part of 1997, it was difficult for the small investor to become actively involved in the stock market. The commission fees charged by the full service brokers were high. Research into companies and analysis of stocks were difficult, obtaining timely information was nearly impossible for the average person. It used to be that stock and option investing was considered the domain of professional money managers and the wealthy elite. The Internet has changed all that by providing a wealth of financial information and online brokerage firms. There are hundreds of Internet sites that provide free instant access to stock quotes, stock charts, company profiles, late breaking company news, detailed technical analysis, and even specific stock and options recommendations.

With computers and Internet connection available to everyone inexpensively, the small investor has opportunity like never before! These days, virtually everyone knows about the stock market. The number of mutual funds has grown 50 folds since the 1970's... 401(K) plans have flourished ... kids these days get stocks as birthday and graduation presents... there is 24 hour stock coverage on TV... online trading accounts are everywhere...

My point is this: we have become a generation of stock investors. We are raising our children to be stock investors. And with savings interest rates hovering around 1%¾there are trillions of dollars in cash still waiting on the sidelines¾with no place to go except right back into the stock market. All it will take is more good news from sectors recovering from over growth and the recent pullbacks.

The most important of all is the fact that investor expectation of reasonable return on investment has been moderated after the recent stock market bubble burst... and a 20% to 30% per year return on a sustainable basis is very attractive and acceptable. In my opinion, anyone who has a portfolio or manages investor or corporate funds is a potential reader [of the Put Options book] and user [of the SafetyNet program] by Jeffery Cohn.

Put Options will change the way you invest by literally changing the way you view investment. It shows you how to invest in today's best blue chip and technology stocks in such a way as to profit when they do well while protecting yourself when they do poorly. Packed with facts, figures, and actual examples of SafetyNet program in action, it unquestionably supports the bottom-line premise that writing options can, if done correctly, be far safer than owning shares of stock--and then shows you exactly how to do it.

You should know I'm biased. Mr. Cohen is my personal financial consultant. Over the past three years while many of my friends were losing a fortune in the market, my portfolio grew substantially thanks to the principles discussed in this book. If you can't have Jeff as your personal advisor, the next best thing to do is read his book and see how he does it. - Wm.G.Hayden,M.D.