I am planning on purchasing an options book.. I have a basic knowledge of most of the concepts and strategies.. I just need to master them.. I am deciding between Mcmillan's "Options as a Strategic Investment" 4th edition and Natenberg's "Option Volatility & Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques" If anyone has an opinion of either please post.. thx
If you're going to purchase the McMillan book I'd suggest "McMillan on Options" rather than "Options as a Strategic Investment." The former offers more on how to utilize specific techniques where as the latter is more general.
The three options books which you MUST own (IMHO) are: 1. _OSI_, McMillan 2. _Option Volatility and Pricing..._, Natenberg 3. _Options: Perception and Deception, Cottle (currently out of print but available through www.thinkorswim as _Coulda Woulda Shoulda_). (_McMillan on Options_ is useful for the trading stories he gives, but I'm not sure that his stuff on put-call ratios or options having out of the ordinary open interest is very relevant). I wouldn't waste my time with anything else that I'm aware of (and I've looked at a lot of options trading books). (BTW stay away from Fontanills -- there's not much meat to his books and all his examples show winning trades -- he'll only give you a false sense of confidence.)
I don't trade options but i got a lot out of reading the vanilla part of 'Dynamic Hedging' by Nassim Taleb...
I have read both and prefer Natenberg. I will have to check out Cottle. He seems to be touted favorably on these boards. By the way, I doubt that you will master options just from reading a book. It is a continuous learning process. Maybe you should read both. I,too, dislike Fontanills. Good luck and happy trading.
Thanks for the replies.. I am planning on both but I will start with Natenberg for now.. Trade101.. I was being a little sarcastic.. BTW I read Cottle's book, from glancing at the other books it seems his is from a truly different perspective.