Financial-future

Unlike most books dealing with the approaching limit in the world's ability to increase oil production, this is a book that supports the view with both geological and economic evidence. For example, it notes oil prices moved to a higher level in the slower growing 2000's after being range bound in the 1990's. The book's epilogue is chilling - especailly the quote from Arthur Clarke who cites our limits on oil production as a reason he sees only a 51 percent chance for human survival. While the first half of the book makes a compelling case for higher oil prices and the inevitable inflationary and possibly deflationary consequences, the second half is a road map for investment survival in the coming tumultous years. The author's whoes portfolio in their previous book outperformed the market by about 50 percntage points and thus avoided the bear market urge investors to roll back the clock to the 1970's. This is a must read for investors, politicians and parents.

Stephen Leeb has great insight into the current and future states of our natural resources, and the trends that govern them. "The Oil Factor" presents a no-nonsense analysis of the energy commodity that has the most import in our world today. The book is clear, understandable, and has a veritable volume of practical advice for short and long term investment. After reading "The Oil Factor", I feel that many aspects of our energy situation and its effect on financial markets, aspects that I understood only superficially before, now make a lot more sense, particularly from the standpoint of a larger, world-view. I recommend this book to anyone who has invested in energy markets or is interested in the effect of oil prices and energy problems on the market in general.

Perhaps the strongest comments I can make about this excellent book is to note that the only negative comments about the book strongly support the Leebs' argument. Read the one star review "an interesting piece of fiction" to see what I mean. Here a putative reader from Champaign Ill compares the Leebs to Rachel Carson and Paul Ehrlich. You have to wonder why this is negative. Carson's arguments changed the way we look at the environment and that Ehrlich continues to write provocative works as a chaired Stanford professor says it all. If you want to tear down an artist by comparing him to Picasso, you are saying a lot more about yourself than the artist.
The same reviewer notes that worldwide oil reserves have been raised to slightly over a trillion barrels. Again were that the case then the Leebs' arguments and I am sure they would agree would be even more telling as a trillion barrels would imply that we are already past the half way point and that oil production has likely already peaked. My guess is that Leebs would place current reserves closer to 1.2 trillion, which would be consistent with peak in oil production within the next two to three years.
I have to admit I am curious about the identity of the reviewer, who professes a familiarity with the Leebs's newsletter and notes its poor past performance for making predictions. I have been reading Stephen Leeb's newsletters for many years and would place them among the very best. Curiously the only letter the Leebs (husband and wife) have done together is the most recent one, The Complete Investor (TCI), which recently won the award for the best financial newsletter. However this newsletter is still less than a year old. Yet the reviewer claims TCI- despite its award winning performance - has a poor long-term record. Curious to say the least. Clearly this reviewer has an axe to grind. Maybe I am being too clever here but I can't help but note that the reasoning (very poor) and style (flippant) of the comments are not dissimilar from those of Leeb's former newsletter Personal Finance, which since Leeb has left has gone down hill in a big way. I dropped a 15 year subscription to it about six months ago.
I conclude by saying again that if the worst you can say about a book turns out upon closer analysis to support the book, then the book is probably a darn good read. I believe that Leeb, though not always right is one of the most prophetic and provocative thinkers on the investment scene. This book has a decent chance to become a true classic and I rate it a must read.

Mr De Rosa has written a well structured
introduction into the forex option market.
The clear examples and the pleasant writing
style make it an easy read (two nights, tops!).
Starting by showing the reader an EBS
dealing screen, he explains the price setting using the Black-Scholes model.
A bit more explanation might have been
in order on how the interbank market
really works in practice (volatility runs for ATMS Straddles, market making, etc...).
The section on exchange traded options and
futures is interesting for readers unaware
of the important differences with the OTC market.
The formulas for the Greeks contain almost
no typo's thus making the book useful as
a reference for a programmer.
The section on barrier options is a bit
disappointing. The relationship between
higher order derivatives and the volatility
smile might not have been out of place
(I am referring to the celebrated "three option
method" to quickly price exotics without
having to use MC-simulation).
Also, when introducing alternatives to the
BS-model, the formulae appear as by Deus
ex Machina. Nothing is said about calibration
difficulties. And when introducing alternative
models, why not going into long term fx
options ?
All in all, I would recommend the book to
any beginning forex option trader or salesperson,
but as those people generally do not earn the
largest of salaries, it is even better if they
borrow it from their institution's library.

This book is a nice introduction to the subject. A trader would benefit from reading the text more than a financial engineer would. It may be a good idea to read the author's "Currency Derivatives," as well. People who have read any text at the level of Hull or higher are advised to move on to "Currency Derivatives" directly.

This second edition has been greatly expanded with materials on the mechanics of the foreign exchange and options markets. The sections on the international monetary system have been updated, especially with respect to the European monetary system. New sections have been added on exotic currency options, specifically on barriers, average rate, basket and quantos options. There are two new chapters, one on currency option applications and another on currency overlay management.

I bought this book 7 years ago, and just recently took it back off the shelf to read/reread sections related to my current work. Book is packed with explanations that facilitate understanding of these complex instruments. And it's nice to see how the binomial model is developed by its inventors. I highly recommend this book to all seeking to understand how to price and analyse options. The reason I gave it 4 stars was that book has an equities focus.

This was our options text book at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For all the technicalities involved, "Options Markets" is relatively easy to understand and follow with plenty of examples charts, graphs and tables.

John C. Cox and Mark Rubinstein also provide sage advice and recaps, even far into the book, for example:
"for initiating and maintaining neutral positions:
1.Never initiate a neutral position where one side of the position is unfavorable
2.Whenever one side...becomes unfavorable, liquidate that side and replace it with another option with a favorable price
3.Never adjust by buying an overpriced option or selling an underpriced option
4.If possible, always adjust by buying an underpriced option or selling an overpriced option

Although the book is a little old, the fundamental principals are sound and so well explained as to make this a truly valuable learning tool for puts, calls, market structure, general arbitrage relationships, exact option pricing formulas, and general option applications.

Always an up-to-date work. The excellent analysis of every aspect of options ranks it a must for the researcher (speculator or agent trader) in order to comprehend thoroughly the real nature and forces of the derivative instruments of the markets and obtain a strong infrastucture for consequent reading on strategies and technical analysis. Mathematics of the book are plain and worth reading to the last equation, for they prove to be the key to the understanding and valuation of any novelty work on the subject.The authors' state-of-the-art multiple remarks and explanations on options prices,their factors and sensitivity factors makes it an everyday's book, besides its academic value. A stand alone book for traders that once you get it is to be read over and over in sequence with any new techniques to be tested.

This book contains absolutely no information on how to judge whether a particular option is over- or under-priced, or how to arrive at either a bullish or bearish outlook. The idea is that you have already come to some conclusion and then you consult the book to determine how you should play the option. That would be fine if the book did not contain numerous errors, all due to the fact that this book apparently was not proof-read. For example, if your outlook is bullish, you find the strategy for putting on a call spread, and select the type of spread you want to do. The author then copied the same instructions into the section on bear spreads, and then tried to change all the "calls" to "puts" or the "buys" to "sells." Of course, he missed many such changes, and there are multiple instances where the word "call" appears where it should read "put," and where "buy" appears when it should be "sell." If you buy this book, you will have to make your own corrections in it, or you may follow the instructions right into the poorhouse. I consider the money I spent on this book to be wasted.

The bad news: This is a classic textbook that requires all your attention and more. Even an experienced option trader can get lost easily. The good news: It is a comprehensive guide and reference book which I use once a week to help me choose the right move.

Option Strategies is an excellent intermediate treatise on option trading. While it doesn't go deeply into option pricing and implied volatility, its focus on strategy and decision structure serves the reader well. Almost every major position type, from the basic buys and writes to the more complex, such as ratio spreads and butterflies are covered. Each position is dissected in detail, with emphasis on how to deal with adverse and positive price impacts.

In the pantheon of trading tomes, Courtney Smith's work should appeal to those looking for a sound foundation in option strategy. It is one place where a trader can look at any idea and figure out which type of play offers the best risk/reward alternatives. A solid non-technical book.

Not for the speculative trader. Baird explains neutrality and hedging scenarios in great detail. Explains some esoteric concepts rarely discussed, such as time spread risk and delta drift. Very succinct explanation on arb spreads and combos, and the tendency to trade to the pin at expiration. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend this book for a basic, clean, non-pretentious presentation of option trading from a market maker's point of view. Baird can also write English: very clear, linear, simple prose. The man has no axes to grind or ego trips to take, and he knows what he's talking about, and gives very practical advice.

Although this book is not for beginners, it doesn't contain any formulas. Instead it focuses on all the complex aspects of making a market for options. I've read this book over and over again on a regular interval to remind me on the way market makers do their practice, and how to avoid the pitfalls in trading against specialists.