Customer Reviews

Trading Stock Options: Basic Option Trading Strategies and How to Use Them to Profit in Any Market

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

 

 

It's easy to understand why so many people are deathly afraid of trading stock options. The novice investor unfamiliar with options trading can pick up most books on the subject and conclude, "Wow, this is way over my head". Not so with TRADING STOCK OPTIONS by Brian Burns. This is the best book I have seen on learning the fundamentals of options trading.

Chapter 1 is a basic introduction to options and Burns keeps it simple so any investor should come away with a basic knowledge of the subject. Chapter 2 is a brief overview of options pricing and the Greeks.

Chapter 3 is the bulk of the book and covers actual trading examples and strategies. The reader will follow step by step how to make covered calls, long calls, long puts, straddles, strangles and writing puts. New options traders are not going to be ready to make actual trades but can certainly begin paper trading to get a feel for what they don't yet know.

At under 200 pages, this is the best introduction to options trading I have found. I highly recommend this for new traders.

One reason that I gave this book 5 stars is because it is full of actual trade data. Burns takes you through his actual trades as they occurred. This is a great way to learn the strategies and I've been recommending the book to people I know. The book is geared for beginners but I found just reading his trades to be interesting in their own account.

I found the book a good resource for someone who is beginning to venture in to the world of stock options. What I found useful is the actual trading strategies employed by the author. His frank examples of his winners and losers and the strategies applied presented clear and easy examples to understand. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to journey in to the world of option training.

Way too many authors fill the pages of their books with unnecessary and superfluous information or negative comments about the stock market or option philosophies which don't mirror what they are trying to sell. This author does not waste the reader's time but gets right to the point with clear and concise explanations as well as, viable option trading strategies. There are illustrations of trades from his personal account. And not all winners which lends credence to his integrity. I highly recommend this book. The only thing that is a concern is that his web site and contact email address which he includes at the end of the book, are no longer in existence...

I have been reading about options and strategies online for months but they were all theoretical. This book puts the strategies into practice and it was great to see real life examples. Like Nicolas Darvas' book, it gives historical trades and examples that are meaningful to a learner. One wish I have is that the author could add the corresponding strategy graphs to the strategies he was explaining or using. For example, in the chapter on his worst trades, the author mentioned that since the upsides to the trades are capped, he should have minimized the downsize so that the loss would not have been as great. It would have been nice to show the strategy graphs on why the upside was capped.

I enjoyed the book and learn a lot, in any case. Thanks, Mr. Burns!

very worthwhile purchase. good primer for someone new in options trading. some good basic charting analysis.

Brian Burns has created an excellent book for beginning option traders. He presents everything a reader needs to begin trading options.

1). A basic introduction to options.
2). He explains the basics of the Greeks that define an optio's value.
3). He explains all the major option strategies, the long call, long put, along with the straddle, and strangle, and selling of puts for profits.

I like that the author explains these strategies not through theory but by sharing his actual trades in most instances, both his wins and losses and his thinking based on their charts.

Some of the key lessons contained in this book:
Define the maximum loss of all trades before you trade them.
Understand the accelerated time decay of options in their last month before you trade them.
In options you not only have to be right about direction but also right about the time frame.
Only use 5% of your available investment account for option speculation.
Play long calls in up trending markets.
Let the market decide when the trend changes.

I highly recommend this book for new option traders, Brian Burns, nails all the basics.

This is not even a book. It is so simple that you can find the same info with a few quick Google searches. It basically covers covered-call, put, long call and long put and then touches on straddle and strangle. It is covered in such simplistic manner that you can search online and easily get the same info. To fluff up the total number of pages there are many pages of appendix which includes, for example, Useful Web Sites. The seven examples of useful web sites takes up one full page - the first site is finance.yahoo.com, follow by MSN money and zacks web sites, ... and the last site is the author's own web site. What? We need to buy a book to come to know finance.yahoo.com? And then one full page is for Recommended Online Brokerage and listed 4 brokerages: etrade, scottrade ... etc with not even an attempt to say why these 4 brokerages are selected - just the names. Lazy, lazy, lazy! Again, we need to buy a book to discover eTrade? Give me a break! This is a totally useless book. Don't waste your money! Read the "content inside the book" before you make up your own mind.