Planning Wealth

THE SHORT BOOK ON OPTIONS is just that: a concise easy to understand primer that first teaches the basics of stock options and then offers a hands-on approach to using options in a conservative manner. Beginning with a description of what an option is and how an option works, THE SHORT BOOK ON OPTIONS takes the reader on a journey from learning the language of options to being prepared to trade. The book provides detailed answers to these important questions: What are the steps involved in trading options? Why would you want to sell a stock option?

What do you have to gain?

What do you have to lose? How do you choose which option to sell? THE SHORT BOOK ON OPTIONS is especially useful for long-term buy and hold investors, owners of a self-directed retirement plan, investment club members or anyone who wants to increase the performance and safety of his/her investment portfolio. The author teaches a conservative strategy focusing on profitability and safety. By the time you finish reading this book, you will be eager (and prepared) to make your first options trade.

This is a strictly no-nonsense text for professional futures and options traders. The book presents a framework that emphasizes the probabilistic nature of decision-making for trading and hedging programs. Equally, the text strives to quantify criteria that in many organizations are assessed qualitatively for actual trading situations. It details various analytical approaches by offering applications-oriented techniques. While the book distinguishes between historical results and expected values, it also demonstrates the critical interdependence between the two. Eschewing the simplistic and folksy wisdom of many investment books, A Handbook for Professional Futures and Options Traders is an astute and sophisticated guide for the serious trader.

The theoretical foundations for real options goes back to the mid 1980s and the development of a model that forms the basis for many current applications of real option theory. Over the last decade the theory has rapidly expanded and become enriched thanks to increasing research activity.

Modern real option theory may be used for the valuation of entire companies as well as for particular investment projects in the presence of uncertainty. As such, the theory of real options can serve as a tool for more practically oriented decision-making providing management with strategies maximizing its capital market value.

The book unfolds and examines a new framework for classifying real options from a management as well as a valuation perspective, giving the advantages and disadvantages of the real option approach. Impulse control theory and the theory of optimal stopping combined with methods of mathematical finance are used to construct arbitrarily complex real option models which can be solved numerically and yield optimal capital market strategies and values. Various examples are given demonstrating the potential of the proposed framework.

An A to Z Primer which gives a complete description of the 12 most popular commodity option strategies. Learn about time value, premium, option pricing and trading months for each commodity. The Primer shows how to use options in conjunction with futures of risk abatement and profit enhancement. Great for getting started.

A must-read for accountants and professionals with a business valuation accreditation or certification, pension actuaries, ERISA lawyers, Financial Valuation of Employee Stock Ownership Plan Shares identifies, explains, and explores the ins and outs of ESOPs, with a focus on what benefits a company/shareholder/plan participant would receive by transacting shares of stock with an ESOP, the formula for an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, stock incentives and their attractiveness to employees, the nature and function of ERISA, Department of Labor, and IRS. It includes training material, the full text of Department of Labor–proposed regulations, details of important court cases, various examples and illustrations to be used as reference and research tools for the experienced and trained valuation professional, and more.

Swing trading tips and techniques from Undergroundtrader.com–voted Forbes’s “Best of the Web” for 2000, 2001, and 2002

Short-term and swing trading has become the strategy of choice for active, aggressive traders and investors. Secrets of the Undergroundtrader details the advanced methods today’s most successful traders live by, from stochastics and candlesticks to 3-price breaks, volatility signals, and more.

Each of these methods is tested daily in the trenches and is designed to allow traders to more accurately time entry and exit points in bull, bear, and nontrending markets. The authors open by explaining how the methods work and then provide step-by-step directions so traders can:

• Learn and become comfortable with the method
• Implement the method in the heat of trading
• Manage the method both mentally and physically

Trading from the Inside answers most questions new traders have. It will greatly sharpen your trading skills and help you to avoid the many common mistakes beginning and advanced traders make.

Mr. Kellogg packs all that he has learned about trading over his long career into this easy to understand 242 paged guide. This book is full of wit and war stories that should help you develop the proper skills to tame risk and prosper in the market.

A comprehensive guide to understanding the implications and applications of valuing employee stock options in light of the new FAS 123 requirements
Due to the new requirements of the Proposed Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (FAS 123) released by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)-namely the fact that employee services received in exchange for equity instruments be recognized in financial statements-companies are now scrambling to learn how to value and expense employee stock options (ESOs). Based on author Dr. Johnathan Mun’s consulting and advisory work with the FASB consulting projects with several Fortune 500 firms, Valuing Employee Stock Options provides readers with a comprehensive look at this complex issue.
Filled with valuable information on binomial lattice and closed-form modeling techniques, Valuing Employee Stock Options can help financial professionals make informed decisions when attempting to ascertain the fair-market value of ESOs under the new requirements.
Johnathan Mun, PhD, MBA, MS, CFC, FRM (San Francisco, CA), is Vice President of Analytical Services at Decisioneering, Inc., the makers of Crystal Ball analytical software. He is also the author of Applied Risk Analysis (0-471-47885-7), Real Options Analysis (0-471-25696-X), and Real Options Analysis Course (0-471-43001-3), all of which are published by Wiley.

In modern financial practice, asset prices are modelled by means of stochastic processes, and continuous-time stochastic calculus thus plays a central role in financial modelling. This approach has its roots in the foundational work of the Nobel laureates Black, Scholes and Merton. Asset prices are further assumed to be rationalizable, that is, determined by equality of demand and supply on some market. This approach has its roots in the foundational work on General Equilibrium of the Nobel laureates Arrow and Debreu and in the work of McKenzie.

This book has four parts. The first brings together a number of results from discrete-time models. The second develops stochastic continuous-time models for the valuation of financial assets (the Black-Scholes formula and its extensions), for optimal portfolio and consumption choice, and for obtaining the yield curve and pricing interest rate products. The third part recalls some concepts and results of general equilibrium theory, and applies this in financial markets. The last part is more advanced and tackles market incompleteness and the valuation of exotic options in a complete market.

Analyzed stock speculative markets, featuring three main principles that apply to the dynamics of these markets. Markets analyzed include stock markets, real estate, postage-stamps, and antiquarian books. Text does not require technical prerequisite knowledge of finance, economics, or mathematics, as the theories presented are mainly empirical.

Book Description

Whether dealing in coffee, wheat, pork bellies, silver or gold, any buyer investing in commodities is trading in the futures market. For the investor, the goal is to make money when that commodity either gains or loses in value. Winning with Futures demystifies the market, with all of its risks and opportunities, and enables readers to make the most informed decisions when betting on the outcome of a product. With easy-to-follow, practical advice, Michael C. Thomsett teaches novice investors to select the best commodities—from energy and imports to financial futures; manage risks effectively while diversifying their portfolios; and avoid selling at the wrong time.

Complete with a history of the futures market as well as an evaluation of the risks involved for all types of futures, this book will help every investor make far better predictions and much bigger profits.

Today’s Premier Guidebook for Understanding Agricultural Options and Making Them a Key Part of Your Trading and Risk Management Strategy Agricultural futures and options represent a vital niche in today’s options trading world. Trading and Hedging with Agricultural Futures and Options takes an in-depth look at these valuable trading tools, and presents clear, proven strategies and techniques for both hedgers and traders to achieve their goals while minimizing risk. Relying on nuts-and-bolts techniques and examples as opposed to the mathematical models and theory favored by other options-trading manuals this practical, hands-on book discusses many topics, including: How hedgers and traders can use options effectively with realistic expectations Methods to understand price behavior including the Greeks (delta, gamma, vega, and theta) The importance of volatility and little-known ways to make it work to your advantage For producers and processors, agricultural futures and options are necessary components for controlling costs and hedging risks. For traders, they are proven vehicles for earning exceptional risk-adjusted profits. Whichever side of the aisle you are on, Trading and Hedging with Agricultural Futures and Options will provide you with the answers you need to effectively use these versatile tools and make them an integral part of your business.

The Definitive Foreclosure Guide for Every Homeowner and Investor

Whether you’re trying to protect your home from foreclosure or invest in foreclosed properties, you still need reliable information and expert advice to protect your investment. Drawn from years of experience helping thousands of borrowers, American Foreclosure covers all the ins and outs of foreclosures, for both homeowners and real estate investors nationwide.

Everything U Need to Know..about Foreclosures

• Preventing foreclosure and avoiding scams
• Discovering your financial options and risks
• Understanding the foreclosure process state-by-state
• Communicating and negotiating with lenders
• Finding and buying foreclosed properties

BONUS CD-ROM FEATURES: Ready-to-print real estate forms, foreclosure prevention resources, plus foreclosure investing tools – including free property listings – and much more!

Option-adjusted spread (OAS) analysis is recognized as an invaluable tool for analyzing and comparing bonds with different structures. Starting with the fundamentals and progressing by easy steps, this compact guide–now updated and expanded with a section on estimating theoretical “fair value”–helps readers build a working knowledge of the limitations of tradition yield-based risk and return analysis, determining “option-free” price and yield, measuring a bond’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates, and more.

Quantitative Modeling of Derivative Securities demonstrates how to take the basic ideas of arbitrage theory and apply them – in a very concrete way – to the design and analysis of financial products. Based primarily (but not exclusively) on the analysis of derivatives, the book emphasizes relative-value and hedging ideas applied to different financial instruments. Using a “financial engineering approach,” the theory is developed progressively, focusing on specific aspects of pricing and hedging and with problems that the technical analyst or trader has to consider in practice.More than just an introductory text, the reader who has mastered the contents of this one book will have breached the gap separating the novice from the technical and research literature.

ACCESS THE FUTURE OF TRADING WITH
Direct Access Futures

Direct access–the phenomenon that transformed stock trading–is radically changing the futures industry as well. Professionals and individual investors alike need to understand these changes or face being left behind. Let futures expert David Silverman show you how to survive and profit in the uncharted waters of trading futures via direct electronic access–with Direct Access Futures. This comprehensive guide is filled with the latest tips, techniques, and technologies related to trading futures online and shows you how to take advantage of this giant leap in futures trading.

Direct Access Futures provides you with:

• Varying types of direct access
• An inside look at how futures markets work, who uses them, and why
• Case studies, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s GLOBEX®2
• An overview of major exchanges
• Trading products, including the e-mini S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 contracts, currency futures contracts, and long-term interest rate futures

Whether you make a living trading futures or just live for trading futures, Direct Access Futures should be your all-purpose guide to this versatile investment vehicle. Learn how to trade futures using direct access and watch your profits soar.

Deterrence of market manipulation is central to the entire regulatory and legal framework governing the operation of American commodity futures markets. However, despite all of the regulatory, scholarly, and legal scrutiny of market manipulation, the subject is widely misunderstood. Federal commodity and securities laws prohibit manipulation, but do not define it. Scholarly research has failed to analyze adequately the causes or effects of manipulation, and the relevant judicial decisions are confused, confusing, and contradictory. The aim of this book is to illuminate the process of market manipulation by presenting a rigorous economic analysis of this phenomenon, including the conditions that facilitate it and its effects on market users and others. The conclusions of this analysis are used to examine critically some legal and regulatory anti-manipulation policies. The Economics, Law and Public Policy of Market Power Manipulation concludes with a set of robust and realistic tests that regulators and jurists can apply to detect and deter manipulation.

The 2nd edition of The Futures Bond Basis, is an updated and revised version of Professor Moorad Choudhry’s succinct but in-depth look at the government bond futures contract basis. It includes essential background on contract specifications and the theory of the basis. It also covers the concept of the cheapest to deliver; price and delivery data for a sample of gilt contracts; the drivers of the basis and its dynamics; the mechanics of basis trading; a detailed explanation of gross and net basis, and an explanation of the implied repo rate. The book uses examples from the UK gilt market, although the basic principles are applicable in any bond futures market.

In the 1990s shareholder value was applied to all aspects of corporate strategy and management decisions as a result of intense competition, globalization, advances in technology, deregulation and the financial markets. As we enter the 21st Century the business environment is one of increasing creative destruction, where competitive advantage is much harder to sustain. Real Options, a type of advanced financial analysis, applies financial option theory to real assets and offers a strategic framework that recognizes the need for management flexibility and to leverage risk in this corporate environment.

Praise for Trading Options to Win

“Johnston has put together a very thorough work on futures options, and many stock option traders would learn something from this book as well. I especially like his reliance on expected returns and probability to choose the best trade to make.”
–Lawrence G. McMillan, President, McMillan Analysis Corp.
bestselling author, Options as a Strategic Investment and Profit with Options

“Entirely different from any other book on options, thank goodness. I fall asleep immediately and without fail after opening a book on options, but not this time. [This book is] readable in one or two sittings with fascinating cases that really illustrate the principles. It may be a delusion, but I think I understood most of Trading Options to Win. Some chapters on specific strategies I will definitely be reading again and trying to use in my own trading.”
–Barbara Rockefeller, founder, Rockefeller Treasury Services
author of The Global Trader and CNBC 24/7 Trading

“Stuart Johnston’s Trading Options to Win is an intelligent, literate, and informative description of the many ways to trade options that also explains why these trading strategies work. Those new to options trading absolutely need this book. Experienced options traders should not miss it.”
–Desmond MacRae, freelance business writer featured in the Financial Times and New York Post

In Trading Options to Win: Profitable Strategies and Tactics for Any Trader, S.A. (Stu) Johnston shares thirty years of trading experience to help you gain an advantage and improve the profitability of your trading within the options and futures markets. Unlike some books, which offer a single “sure-fire” system for turning a profit, Trading Options to Win examines a broad methodology and philosophy of trading that puts the likelihood of profits on your side of the table.

Attempting to minimize risk, establishing a discipline for entering and exiting trades, and claiming a healthy return on capital (ROC) can be difficult in the options and futures markets. But with Trading Options to Win as your guide, you will quickly learn how to do this–and much more.