The world's fastest growing trading markets are options markets. Options offer a world of opportunities that are simply unavailable to the stock trader. Trading stocks is like owning a "hammer," but trading options is like owning the whole toolbox. Why, then, do so many investors lose money in options? They lose because they trade options the way they've always traded stocks. To succeed, you must understand options the way professional options traders do. This book will help you do precisely that. When stock traders look at price, they see information. Options traders see probability, time, volatility -- and perhaps even a lack of information. Stock trading is about having more information than the other guy. Options trading can be about exploiting the lack of information. Stock trades have a 50% chance of success: stocks go up or they don't. Options trades can be structured for 90% probability of success. The very nature of trading is transformed by these radically different dynamics. Michael Hanania Benklifa reveals those dynamics and shows exactly how to take full advantage of them. Benklifa manages millions of dollars in options trades through his own firm. Here, he reveals how he approaches these trades, offering practical, concise and actionable insights based on actual scenarios. If you've struggled to profit from options... if you're intrigued by options, but hesitant... if you're succeeding with options but want to do better... this is the book you've been searching for.

In Volatility Trading, Sinclair offers you a quantitative model for measuring volatility in order to gain an edge in your everyday option trading endeavors. With an accessible, straightforward approach. He guides traders through the basics of option pricing, volatility measurement, hedging, money management, and trade evaluation. In addition, Sinclair explains the often-overlooked psychological aspects of trading, revealing both how behavioral psychology can create market conditions traders can take advantage of-and how it can lead them astray. Psychological biases, he asserts, are probably the drivers behind most sources of edge available to a volatility trader. Your goal, Sinclair explains, must be clearly defined and easily expressed-if you cannot explain it in one sentence, you probably aren't completely clear about what it is. The same applies to your statistical edge. If you do not know exactly what your edge is, you shouldn't trade. He shows how, in addition to the numerical evaluation of a potential trade, you should be able to identify and evaluate the reason why implied volatility is priced where it is, that is, why an edge exists. This means it is also necessary to be on top of recent news stories, sector trends, and behavioral psychology. Finally, Sinclair underscores why trades need to be sized correctly, which means that each trade is evaluated according to its projected return and risk in the overall context of your goals. As the author concludes, while we also need to pay attention to seemingly mundane things like having good execution software, a comfortable office, and getting enough sleep, it is knowledge that is the ultimate source of edge. So, all else being equal, the trader with the greater knowledge will be the more successful. This book, and its companion CD-ROM, will provide that knowledge. The CD-ROM includes spreadsheets designed to help you forecast volatility and evaluate trades together with simulation engines.

In this book, a hedge fund manager and an option trading coach show you how to earn steady, reliable income selling options by managing your option trades and running your option portfolio as a real business with consistent, steady returns. Packed with real-world examples, the authors show you how to manage your own “one man” hedge fund and make consistent profits from selling options by applying the basic framework and fundamental business model and principles of an “insurance company”. This framework helps you to apply your option trading strategy to a solid, predictable, business model with consistent returns. For someone who has some knowledge of trading options and wants to become a consistent income earner. The authors provide a complete “operations manual” for setting up your business. Gain pearls of wisdom from both a professional options trader and coach, and from a hedge fund manager focused on managing an options based portfolio.

THE SECRET TO PROFITING FROM OPTIONS: THINK LIKE A PROFESSIONAL OPTION TRADER, NOT A STOCK TRADER! Understand the unique dynamics of options trades and markets Practical, concise insights based on actual option trading scenarios Master trade selection, risk management, and more By professional options trader Michael Benklifa, best-selling author of Profiting with Iron Condor Options Want to win in options? You must think like a professional option trader. Step #1: Get rid of the habits you learned in stock trading: they’re killing you! Step #2: Understand the real dynamics of options markets: they are radically, fundamentally different. Example: When stock traders look at price, they see information. Option traders see probability, time, and volatility. Example: Stock trading is about having an information advantage. Option trading can be about exploiting a lack of information. Example: Stocks either go up or they don’t. Option trades can be structured for a 90% probability of success. With dynamics like these, option trading is like nothing else. Through practical, simple examples, Michael Benklifa will help you understand what’s really going on here…so you can consistently build trades that earn profits and control risk!

This straightforward, accessible guide clearly explains what options are and how they work, their pros and cons, their relationship with stocks, and how to use them to gain leverage, generate extra income, and protect against adverse price movements.

A detailed, one-stop guide for experienced options traders Positional Option Trading: An Advanced Guide is a rigorous, professional-level guide on sophisticated techniques from professional trader and quantitative analyst Euan Sinclair. The author has over two decades of high-level option trading experience. He has written this book specifically for professional options traders who have outgrown more basic trading techniques and are searching for in-depth information suitable for advanced trading. Custom-tailored to respond to the volatile option trading environment, this expert guide stresses the importance of finding a valid edge in situations where risk is usually overwhelmed by uncertainty and unknowability. Using examples of edges such as the volatility premium, term-structure premia and earnings effects, the author shows how to find valid trading ideas and details the decision process for choosing an option structure that best exploits the advantage. Advanced topics include a quantitative approach for directionally trading options, the robustness of the Black Scholes Merton model, trade sizing for option portfolios, robust risk management and more. This book: Provides advanced trading techniques for experienced professional traders Addresses the need for in-depth, quantitative information that more general, intro-level options trading books do not provide Helps readers to master their craft and improve their performance Includes advanced risk management methods in option trading No matter the market conditions, Positional Option Trading: An Advanced Guide is an important resource for any professional or advanced options trader.

The options market allows savvy investors to assume risk in a way that can be very profitable, if the right techniques are used with the proper insight. In Trading Options as a Professional, veteran floor trader James Bittman provides both full-time and professional traders with a highly practical blueprint for maximizing profits in the global options market. This peerless guide helps you think like a market maker, arms you with the latest techniques for trading and managing options, and guides you in honing your proficiency at entering orders and anticipating strategy performance. Most importantly, it gives you access to one of the world's leading educators and commentators as he candidly defines the seven trading areas that are essential for successful options traders to master: Option price behavior, including the Greeks Volatility Synthetic relationships Arbitrage strategies Delta-neutral trading Setting bid and ask prices Risk management You will benefit from Bittman's exceptional understanding of volatility, his perceptive examples from the real world, and the dozens of graphs and tables that illustrate his strategies and techniques. Each chapter is a complete, step-by-step lesson, and, collectively, give you the best toolbox of profit-making solutions on the options trading floor. In addition, Trading Options as a Professional comes with Op-Eval Pro, a powerful software that enables you to analyze your trades before you make them by calculating implied volatility, graphing simple and complex options strategies, and saving analyses to review later. Don't be left guessing on the sidelines--trade with the confidence of a market maker by following the road map to higher profits in Trading Options as a Professional.