Finally, a list of my most popular and/or valuable articles outlining my trading philosophy. I apologize for placing my articles at the same place with Augen, Van K. Tharp and Elder, I just wanted my readers to be able to see everything in one place.
I joined your group a couple of weeks ago. My first tree trades where losers. Now, after 11 trades I have 4 losers and 7 winners, and I am about 500 bugs in the green including commission. Considering the effort that might not be impressive but considering my inexperience I am quite hopeful. I am glad to be here. You are doing a great job.
Sometime last year I read The Rookie's Guide to Options by Mark D. Wolfinger. I plan on reading it again. Going through your list I am thinking Options as a Strategic Investment by Lawrence G. McMillan could helpful. I want something to expand my knowledge and deepen my understanding so it becomes easier for me to profit from and contribute to this group. The book should be practical! Is this book a good next step for me or is there a better alternative? Also, which trading book would you recommend the most.
First of all, congrats! It is a common belief that you should be very satisfied if you didn't lose any money during your first year of trading. It actually makes perfect sense. To become an engineer, you have to study at least 4 years - why people expect it to be different in trading?
$500 of course doesn't tell the whole story - I don't know how much did you allocate per trade, how much are your commissions etc. Making $500 on 10k portfolio is not the same as making $500 on 100k portoflio.
The McMillan book is more a reference. The Wolfinger book is actually my favorite for novice and intermediate options traders. Cohen's books are also very good. I also highly recommend the Van Tharp books.
Dan Sheridan mentoring getting really good reviews. It is not cheap at 6k, but you get a lot for that money, including lifetime membership.
Thanks. I could probably write it off. Just exploring alternatives at this point in time.
I am experienced trader/investor and a newbie to site. So far I like it. One thing does make me cringe however, and that is that "The Complete Guide to Selling Options" by Cordier and Gross is on the recommended reading list. I invested with these clowns about 8 years ago and lost 23,000 in one day. They may have changed their strategy since but basically they sold large number of OTM puts on futures. In this case it was Live Cattle. Even when the price moved against the position by the amount they recommended you exit, they left the position open. Then mad cow hit, and my entire account was wiped out. They had no risk management that I could see. Yes, I know, it's investor beware and I do take this experience as a painful lesson. Since then, risk management is key for me and thats what I like about this site.
Thanks for sharing that Jay.
I read the book few years ago and remember it was a good reading. Sometimes people don't practice what they preach (or maybe they learned their lesson from 8 years ago). I remember they did write about importance of risk management - maybe based on their previous experience.
of the books listed would you recommend one that reflects your trading philosophy more that the others?
I like Mark Wolfinger's book. Our earnings strategy is based on one of the chapters in Augen's book. From the trading philosophy list, I liked the Super Trader.
For just entertainment sake, try The Quants, by Scott Patterson and Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis. Both are very well written (Lewis also wrote The Blind Side, since turned into a hit movie, which I also recommend, especially for football buffs) quick reads and have enough technical trading discussion in them that SO members will "get" a lot of what most readers won't. Both are also useful cautionary tales about over-confidence, trading in things you don't understand, and risk/reward decisions (or the lack thereof).
I'm working my way through this one and Augen's book.
Let us know what you think of it when you read it please. At the first glance (looking at the table of contents and the preface) they go through all possible strategies around earnings including the one we're doing here but I'm not sure whether they'd offer me any new insights - so curious to hear what you think.
Sorry about that I think the editor is butchering the link. Trying again and also including add'l info.
The title is certainly dead on for what we do. Let us know what you think when you get through it.
Here are two whitepapers that I read in the past few weeks.
I can't seem to get a link for the other one without my computer downloading it. Put this into google and it will come up: Earnings Announcements in Options Expiration Weeks by H Ding.
As a newbie, I'm still paper trading and trying to wrap my arms around the strategies. As it appears having a sound understanding of volitility is imperative, can you recommend which book you feel would be the best for me.
The last 3 books in the options books list talk a lot about volatility, but the concepts are pretty advanced.
Thanks! I'll check them out to see if they're too advanced for me.
The classic that can't be left off this book recommendation list is Market Wizards. The vast majority of trading is psychology and risk management, and that's what the interviews from the most successful traders of all time consistently mention in the Market Wizards series.
Don't forget to check out your local library, I'm often surprised to find books like this show up in mine (both in print and e-book).