With over 300,000 copies sold, the new edition of this comprehensive mentoring guide clearly presents all of the essential information needed to learn to trade options.

Whereas most options books focus on profit and loss opportunities, this book addresses the issues of hedging market risks in an equity portfolio head on. The author presents the compelling argument that options should not be thought of as risky stand-alone trading vehicles, but offer greater value as a coordinated strategic methodology for managing equity portfolio risks as presented in numerous examples in this book.

Divided into four parts, Options reflects a guiding standard of the past nine editions and includes:

Crystal clear explanations of the attributes and strategies of calls and puts.
A chapter on the short life of an option. This, missing in almost every options book, is a key to understanding options trading.
Examples in Part 1 showing different trading strategies on both sides of the trade.
The second part of the book is about closing positions; taking profit, exercising, expirations or rolling forward your position, risk analysis, profit calculations, and the impact of volatility.

The third part simplifies the complex issues of advanced strategies including the various spreads, combining spreads to successfully hedge other positions and how certain strategies work. Each spread is covered in at least one detailed example.

The final part is on evaluating risk. The unquestioned benefits of hedging risk and strategies that are virtually guaranteed to succeed that are generally the domain of the investment giants along with many examples are discussed.

The book's broad coverage makes it an incredibly valuable desk reference to any trader in options. You won't get explanations like these on the internet.

Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, The Mathematics of Options, and A Technical Approach to Trend Analysis.

Click here to see an interview with the author.