Options Trading Books

Buying and reading good trading books is an excellent way to build knowledge and confidence. Additionally, the good ones serve as ready references on your bookshelf as new trading ideas occur to you and as new market conditions present themselves. There are many good titles available. I have found the following to be particularly useful.

Options Trading for the Conservative Investor, by Michael Thomsett, is an excellent resource for the beginning options seller. His focus is on conservative uses of options with abundant practical suggestions. This book is easy to read and I recommend it highly.

Options Made Easy, by Guy Cohen, is another well-written book on options trading. Presented as a practical manual, it is filled with numerous examples to aid the reader’s understanding. The emphasis here is on safe uses of options. I refer to my copy regularly.

Options as a Strategic Investment, by Lawrence G. McMillan, is the classic on options trading. This book is written with a more experienced option investor in mind. Numerous option strategies are discussed, and the examples provided are presented with reference to differing market conditions. As your option-selling business grows, you will want this book on your shelf.

The Complete Guide to Option Selling, by James Cordier and Michael Gross, is a wonderful book on why selling commodity futures options may be an even better strategy than using stocks and ETF's as the underlying. Written in a compelling and engaging style, the information presented here enabled me to add this style of option selling to my personal tookit.

The Stock Option Income Generator, by Harvey C. Friedentag, is an interesting new book that looks at investing from a risk perspective. Six of the 19 chapters are about using options. Charper 15, Managing an Options Income Portfolio, will be useful to you.

Get Rich with Options by Lee Lowell, now in its second edition, provides a detailed overview of covered calls, put selling and credit spreads. Earlier in his career, Lee worked as a pit trader. His book reveals quite a bit on how to sell options safely. It is filled with numerous trade examples and some pithy humor to boot.

If you have a particular title or author you'd like to see here or a book that you would like me to review, please let me know through the "Contact Us" page. I intend to add reviews of quality titles to this page.