Getting Started in Options (Wiley Audio)

Rating:
Summary: A very good book for beginners
Review: Review of 2nd Ed

If you have no idea what an option is or how they work, then this is the book for you. Thomsett describes in detail calls, puts, and the basic options plays: covered calls/puts, naked calls/puts and how and when to play them.

For more detailed option plays read the options books by Lawrence G. McMillan and Wade B. Coo

Rating:
Summary: Your best option for learning options!
Review: Getting Started in Options does an excellent job demystifying the world of stock options trading. In clear, concise language, Thomsett explains everything you need to know about trading calls and puts in both long and short positions so that it's easy to get started immediately. After explaining how each type of option works, several hypothetical examples are given so that its easy to visualize the "how's" and "why's" of engaging in a particular type of trade.

In addition to explaining how options work, it gives the reader a good perspective on a smart option trader's thinking by explaining the strategic reasons for each trade. Later chapters of the book go into multi-trade strategies such as creating hedges or spreads. Aside from being a great reference after reading the entire book, the style of writing just keeps you reading so unlike other books, you won't fall asleep in the midst of technical mumbo jumbo!

Rating:
Summary: boring read
Review: this book is sooo boring.It reads like a vcr instruction manual.For a REALLY useful book on options,try guy cohen`s "options made easy". You won`t regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Fair but Not the Best
Review: Explaining options from the ground up is hard, and Thomsett gets most of the particulars right... but the book itself is not well designed, making it harder to read than need be. Since no beginning options book is perfect, this one is worth buying. No matter where you start, you'll need to read more than one book.

Getting Started in Options does have some very strong points for beginners... presenting the results of a complex trade in a table format (if the stock goes to $40, you make $X; if it goes to $45, you make $X...) instead of the usual cryptic risk profile graphic is good. On the other hand, there's peculiar misinformation such as the claim that the "striking price" (read strike price) is always divisible by 5. Not true, options come at 7.50, 12.50, 17.50 etc. strikes. And then there are the weird post-split prices. The major points are OK, though.

However, the reviewer below, who complained that she (he?) stopped reading when Thomsett told her that if she bought a put she wanted the stock to fall, which outraged her, was completely off base. She needs to read this book again, or another. Puts have multiple roles, and Thomsett give several uses. Thomsett started with the simplest case, trading puts. You certainly do want the stock to drop when you buy a put in that case. But if you owned the stock or similar stocks before buying the put,that's a different purpose with a different objective. That's a hedge, which is an insurance move, and the reviewer is right... we usually don't want to collect insurance.

But this is the kind of mistake that can happen when reading this book, and it is more the publisher's fault than the author's. It's a case of very poor design and somewhat tatty organization. Wiley is an indifferent publisher... if a manuscript comes in strong, OK, but if the author needs a professional editor, Wiley's not the place to find one. In this book, some key points will sail right by the beginner, others are hard to find. I have the third edition, which even has barely readable light green type.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent in it's simplicity & use of examples
Review: Great starter book. As a new concept is developed, the author provides many examples to help make the concept sink-in.