Reviewed by Ed Dobson, President, Traders Press, Inc.

Did you ever guess which way the market was going to move and then lose money? That’s like saying “Have you ever traded?” Of course you have! It happens all the time.

Guess right; you win. Guess wrong; you lose. If you’re lucky (or consistently good), you’re right more often than wrong, and your average profit is greater than your average loss…and you make money on balance. That would place you in the distinct minority of traders.

If you find this thought disheartening, take solace when you learn that there is an alternative to guessing market direction. You can quit your job as a directional trader and become a “non-directional” trader. The strategies taught in this book will show you that you can set up positions (using options) that can make money in any given stock or index whether it goes up, down or sideways. Sounds too good to be true!

But, wait, there’s a catch (isn’t there always?)...it just can’t go too far or too fast…and you’ll do best in situations where the index or stock you are interested in is not presently in a strong trend, which, statistically, happens to be most of the time.

Author Anthony Saliba speaks from many years of experience on the floor of the CBOE. He is one of the original “Market Wizards” interviewed in Jack Schwager’s classic book by that title. Any time one can learn firsthand from any of the folks featured in that book or its successor (New Market Wizards) through their writings, one has the opportunity to obtain valuable market knowledge at a nominal price…the proverbial offer one “can’t refuse”.

Such is the case with this book. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners but only for those already conversant with the basics of options trading, and preferably with prior experience in trading options. I would rate it as intermediate to advanced level. Although, it is written so clearly, an options “newbie” could understand it.

Saliba emphasizes that the strategies he teaches in the book were once available only to professional floor traders, many of whom used them extensively. Near-instant availability of option quotes and extremely low execution costs have leveled the playing field, making the former “alligator spread” a feasible and viable strategy for the average trader. (As the joke went, the high commission cost of the many legs involved in these complex spreads “ate you alive”.)

The strategies one learns in this book have colorful names, which make them easy to differentiate and learn: Butterflies, condors, pterodactyls, “broken wing” butterflies and the “iron” permutations of each. You may have learned a bit about them in a basic text on options…but this book is the “bible” on these strategies.

These strategies are examined from every possible angle and explained in a way that makes one aware of many aspects of trading them that may never have occurred before, such as how each of the “Greeks” affects them under varying conditions, how they are synthetically equivalent to combinations of other simpler strategies, with which you may already be familiar, and how they may be constructed one “piece at a time” rather than all at once, to accommodate a changing market view of the underlying.

Each strategy is explained in great detail, with the formula for determining breakeven points and other relevant issues provided in detail. Each section ends with a set of questions to test your knowledge of the subject and exercises that require the reader to work through the math involved, an excellent technique for instilling a knowledge of each strategy.

A lengthy, in-depth interview with Saliba is a noteworthy contribution that contributes many insights into how the option “pros” operate. It is reassuring to learn that the average trader can now become a “pro” because all the advantages that only pros once had (such as immediate access to quotes and fills and extremely low commissions) are now available to all option traders.

This book will prove valuable to the proper audience. I wouldn’t recommend it to those who have no interest in learning about or using advanced option strategies…but those who do will find a valuable resource here. Review by
Edward Dobson, President
Traders Press, Inc.
Greenville, SC

Additional details and table of contents may be viewed at this link: http://www.traderspress.com