The Conservative Investor's Guide to Trading Options

Rating:
Summary: Well-Written, Crisply Edited
Review: Before reading this, or any, options book, one should go to [website] and study the subject thoroughly. Once you know the basics, this book can be appreciated. Note: unless one has at least about $5000, someone should quite probably stick to buying calls or puts (which the author, the late Mr. Gross rightfully labels as an 'aggressive' strategy), depending on the market's and a stock's overall outlook.
This book is at its best when used by someone with more than $5000 (and preferably more like $10,000) who can use the time-tested hedging strategies effectively detailed here. Investors on a tighter budget would likely do better with Charles Caes'"Tools of the Bull" or "Tools of the Bear" (the "Bear" book can be easily adapted to using in a bull market also). Options investors should also know some technical analysis, John Murphy's "Charting Made Easy" is a good, cost-effective source.
The layout of this book is clean and makes it easy to read. Gross was a good writer, relaying his ideas clearly to the reader. Any options book will confuse a beginner, learn them first at [website].

Rating:
Summary: This is a great one
Review: Most trading books give you well chosen examples of how great their methods work. Rarely the risk and downside. This one shows you the strategies, and the risks if it all goes wrong, as well as the potential profits. It walks you through clear examples and describes over a dozen strategies in a simple manner. Some I surprisingly wasn't familiar with. For example, this is one of the few option texts that mentions and walks though calendar spreads.

If you can't understand this book, you shouldn't be trading options. It is one of only 4 option texts I have kept in my library. The only criticism I have is that this book was written before discount brokers, the commissions weren't updated in the examples. You should not be without this one. Larry McMillan wouldn't be involved if it wasn't first class.

Another good one is Trester's "The Complete Option Player".

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to read.
Review: The idea for this book is a good one, but the execution is not. It is hard to read and follow. Options are confusing enough anyway without confusing writing about them.