Customer Reviews

Your Employee Stock Options

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a book that will really help people, including my clients, decide what to do with their stock options. It is easy to read with excellent examples and very valuable tools. It does an excellent job explaing the intricacies of employee stock options without overwhelming the reader with technical jargon and tax laws. Being able to use the web site is amajor advantage.

Your Employee Stock Options is a useful book for someone with options. It provides an interesting approach to making decisions on when to exercise options and when to sell. As an engineer that received pre-IPO options, the concept of leverage wasn't relevant to my case. When your exercise price is less than a dollar a share, the decision of when to exercise is almost purely a tax issue. Leverage may be more important to others. The concept of securing your critical capital is excellent. Just going through the planning process of deciding what you want with your life makes this book worthwhile. Considering cost vs. benefit, I recommend someone buy this book and use it to help define what end result they want. I also recommend that the reader search for alternate opinions and do a dry run through the tax calculations before they exercise options. Don't blindly put you financial future in the hands of financial professionals. (If they really know what they're doing, wouldn't they be too busy making money for themselves?) Decide what YOU want and run the numbers.

I am re-reading "Your Employee Stock Options" by Alan Ungar and Mark Sakanashi to sharpen my stock option knowledge.

This book is not only a must-read for anyone who owns options, but it is invaluable to me in my financial planning practice. The concept of "Critical Capital" is the most common sense way to look at the timing of cashing in options that I have seen. My clients benefit by having a rational way to look at how options can best be used to reach their financial goals.

Throw in the tools available on the website, and you have a complete resource for guiding yourself or your clients through the complicated maze of stock options. I highly recommend this valuable book.

I found this book very helpful in deciding how to manage my option portfolio. It helped me to think about risk assessment and the assessment of future potential of my options.

I really like the practical and useful information in the book. Which options should I exercise first and why? Should I sell or hold...how many and for how long?

By using the tip from the book regarding the AMT "sweet spot" I found I could exercise a number of ISOs in 2001 without incurring AMT in excess of my normal tax liability. I also used the tip on stock exchanges.

Very helpful. Well worth the price.

I am a Certified Financial Planner with over 30 years experience. My staff and I deeply appreciate the authors' concept of Critical Capital as a tool for helping clients determine when to exercise and when to sell their stock options. Their companion web-site reinforces the points they make and is easy to use. The chapters on why to hold and when to sell options is a must read for anyone who owns options or anyone who advises clients with options.

Everyone who has been granted stock options should have this book. It is relatively easy-reading on a subject that is typically perceived as very complex and mysterious. The authors set out a "Critical Capital" strategy that provides a foundation for making decisions about when to exercise options and when to sell option shares. I looked at the companion website...and thought that it was very handy and helpful in supporting the decision process. As a CPA, I will strongly recommend the book to all of my clients who are involved in stock option programs.

As a Senior Financial Advisor of this countrys largest brokerage house, Registered Investment Advisor, and previously a University Professor for over 20 years, I found this book purely dreadful. The "Five Steps to a Successful Exercise Strategy" and Case Studies that Mr. Ungar and Mr. Sakanashi wrote were worse than some turned in my by my first year students. "Your Employee Stock Options" may have helped a minority of the readers (some very suspiciously skewed reviews here) who lacked the good sense to call their accountant or financial consultant. And for Chicago who suggests cashing in their options now rather than when they might have had some value? Does absurdity mean anything to you?

Do a search for Stock Options here on Amazon. Youll find many choices, all better than this one. Believe me, Ive read nearly every one of them.

My wife and I adopted the prinicples the authors describe in Your Employee Stock Options and we are very pleased that we did. We have taken just enough options off the table to secure our Critical Capital 25 years hence. The rest we will exercise only as thier expiration date approaches-thus taking advantage of thier leverage. We'll be thrilled if the stock continues to go up, but are not too worried about it since we now have a diversified portfolio and are no longer dependent on what happens to my company's stock.

While I found the information in this book extensive, there simply isn't anything that can't be found in numerous others or the countless sites on the Web covering the subject. In the last several years, we've seen a flood of material covering stock options; so spending a few evenings on Charles Schwab or E-Trade would fill in many of the basics.

And this basic concept of options is not as complicated as one might think. It comes down to current, strike and exercise prices, and the number of options available to you at the moment. You obviously want to get the maximum return. Since options are usually granted with a timetable, you likely have access to only a portion for a specific period (25%/ after the 1st year, 50% after the 2nd year, etc.) There's some forecasting of the company's position, your situation, your critical capital point, etc. which will affect your choice on how much and when to exercise. The danger comes in with the way options can be taxed. Some have found themselves with options that are worthless, yet become faced with a horrendous tax bill. So spend some quality time with your accountant. If you have any options at all, it would behoove you not to.

From a more pragmatic point of view, how many employees are really interested in stock options at this point? With the Dow, NASDAQ, and most other markets in the trenches, this book simply is too late. Except for a few minority sectors, the stock options market isn't favorable for exercising right now. When the market cycle changes it will, but not now.

My own experience, as well as that of my colleagues' in the tech sector confirms this. In recent interviewing of candidates for senior positions, more paramount on candidates' minds are long-term stability and then salary. Stock options are scarcely mentioned, even though my current venture has done well in these turbulent times.

I would simply close with saying that I did not find this book as valuable as several others I've read covering stock options, nor did it present anything new or give me a compelling reason to recommend it. I found Stock Options: Getting Your Share of the Action: Negotiating Shares and Terms in Incentive and Nonqualified Plans by Tom Taulli an overall better book.

After reading this book, I'm perplexed. A few "so-called" financial advisors recommend it highly, yet I found it rather weak. I also work in finance for a living and have done so for much of my life. As for the reader who says if financial people all knew so much, they'd all be rich, he's right, many of them are. But not because of following the advice in this book. Probably because a few of them have you buy a poor written book, link you to a dubious website, and cash in membership fees...
It's so bad, it would seem that the authors are either writing their own reviews or having their friends write them. I found myself mortified to have bought this book, save your money and search the web for real-world advice.