Volatility Illuminated by Mark Whistler

This week's featured book on options trading:

Volatility Illuminated: Empowering Forex, Stocks, Options, and Futures Traders
by Mark Whistler
CreateSpace (July 2009)

From the publisher: Why is Volatility Illuminated so powerful? Because it unlocks new and innovative information about indicator and information failure, volatility and probability, institutional order flow, mass, force, and energy.

Volatility Illuminated presents durable up-to-the-minute strategies for intraday and swing traders (institutional and retail) including: WVAV - Whistler Volume Adjusted Volatility (assisting VWAP trading), WAVE-PM - Whistler Active Volatility Energy Price Mass, Fibonacci Pitchforks, and Quad CCI. In addition, readers will learn the importance of subset distribution compression, expansion, acceleration, force and mass, all pulled together in a simple, easy-to-understand format. Volatility Illuminated elucidates critical underpinnings of market volatility and price action, which many never discover. This book is timely, empowering, applicable, and can help traders understand erratic movements within markets ... once and for all.

Advanced Options Trading by Kevin M. Kraus

This week's featured book on options trading:

Advanced Options Trading: Approaches, Tools, and Techniques for Professionals Traders
by Kevin M. Kraus
McGraw-Hill (October 2009)

From the publisher: As an active trader in today’s market, you are faced with unprecedented challenges. Dramatic price swings in equity, debt, and currency have made it tougher than ever to manage and trade risk. But with great risk, of course, comes great opportunity— and Advanced Options Trading delivers a detailed system for successfully trading options in a highly volatile and unpredictable global market.

Noted options educator and owner of his own brokerage house, Kevin M. Kraus explains the best practices for using options to capture premium, reduce equity purchase prices, manage the costs of buying options, and control portfolio risk—critical skills for finding steady profits in our ever-shifting economic landscape. He offers a close examination of the nature of volatility and what it means for investors, whether they’re just getting started or are veterans of the options market.

Advanced Options Trading covers:

 •  The critical nature of forward-looking implied volatility
 •  Ways to level the volatility playing field with options
 •  Techniques for adding value to a portfolio while managing risk
 •  The functions of price hedging— and how to do it effectively
 •  Interest rate options and which factors drive debt markets
 •  Options analysis techniques

Options are among the most valuable tools for hedging and risk management, and they also function as profitable investment vehicles, allowing you to make bearish trades through radical market shifts.

Advanced Options Trading provides a solid foundation on the options market, along with the necessary skills for trading and managing risk in today’s constantly expanding and contracting market.

Getting Started in Options by Michael C. Thomsett

This week's featured book on options trading:

Getting Started in Options
by Michael C. Thomsett
Wiley (November 2009)

From the publisher: An easy-to-read and updated guide to the dynamic world of options investing, now in its 8th edition.

During the recent market turmoil, option trading volume actually increased, but many are still unsure of the opportunities that options present, simply because they don't fully understand how this market works. With Getting Started in Options, Eighth Edition, author Michael C. Thomsett looks to change this. In non-technical, easy-to-follow terms, this accessible guide thoroughly demystifies the options markets, distinguishes the imagined risks from the real ones, and arms investors with the facts they need to make more informed decisions.

 • Opens with an introduction commenting on the recent market turmoil and the growing importance of options
 • Contains new chapters on futures and index options
 • Includes sidebar definitions and easy-to-follow examples that anyone can understand

Besides new examples, updated charts, and timely additions to reflect important changes in the markets, this edition also includes discussions on other important options issues, such as: how to calculate options returns; "test run" activities to try out new theories; and much more.

Option Spreads Made Easy Course Book with DVD by George Fontanills

This week's featured book on options trading:

Option Spreads Made Easy Course Book with DVD
by George Fontanills
Marketplace Books (December 2007)

From the publisher: George Fontanills, popular author of Trade Options Online and The Options Course and founder of Optionetics.com, hands you his proven techniques for profiting with option spreads.

Included in this course book is a vivid 90-minute DVD and online access to charts and self exams to ensure that you digest all aspects of his winning techniques. Fontanills shows you how you can use option spreads to expand your profit opportunities while managing your risk. With this ground-breaking DVD and book combination, you can pour over every word of Fontanills presentation learning each important point in a step-by-step, layer-by-layer process.

Fontanills begins with a discussion on equity options and basic bull call spreads and continues with lessons on how to structure debit and credit spreads, what market conditions are most profitable, and how to achieve your trading goals by adjusting strike-price levels. Making spreading strategies understandable and easy to implement, Fontanills work also includes:

 • Why the lowest-priced option isn t always the cheapest
 • How in-the-money spreads can be safer, even if they cost more
 • The Sketch-pad method of risk analysis -- drawing a picture of your trade probabilities
 • Making time-value decay your ally, instead of your enemy
 • Understanding how volatility patterns impact your trading selection

Using Fontanill's engaging course book, you will be able to fully grasp how to reduce your risk and to start profiting with option spreads right away.

Financial Derivatives: Pricing and Risk Management by Robert W. Kolb and James A. Overdahl, Editors

This week's featured book on options trading:

Financial Derivatives: Pricing and Risk Management
by Robert W. Kolb and James A. Overdahl, Editors
Wiley (November 2009)

From the publisher: At a time when our entire financial system is under great stress, many investors point to the misuse of derivatives as one of the primary causes of the financial meltdown. Long misunderstood by the general public, some financial derivatives are fairly simple—while others are quite complicated and require considerable mathematical and statistical knowledge to fully understand. But with our financial system now undergoing unprecedented changes, there has never been a better time to gain a firm understanding of these instruments.

As part of the Robert W. Kolb Series in Finance, Financial Derivatives skillfully explores the contemporary world of financial derivatives. Starting with a presumption of only a general knowledge of undergraduate finance, this collection of essential perspectives, written by leading figures in academics, industry, and government, provides a comprehensive understanding of financial derivatives. The contributors provide a complete overview of the types of financial derivatives and the markets in which they trade. They analyze the development and current state of derivatives markets—including their regulation—and examine the role of derivatives in risk management. They look at the pricing of derivatives, beginning with the fundamentals and move on to more advanced pricing techniques, showing how Monte Carlo methods can be applied to price derivatives.

The book concludes with an examination of the many ways derivatives can be used. While it is clear that financial derivatives are valuable for managing risks and for providing information about the future prices of underlying goods, they can also be used as very sophisticated speculation tools. The authors explore option strategies used to speculate and show how the same strategies can be employed to reduce risk. In addition, they reveal how financial derivatives can effectively manage interest rate risk and discuss how hedge funds use financial derivatives.

Uncertainty is a hallmark of today's global financial marketplace. This essential guide to financial derivatives will help you unlock their vast potential for risk management and much, much more.

Also available: Financial Derivatives (Kindle edition). Learn more about the Amazon Kindle, a wireless reading device.