10 Easy to Understand Books About Option Investing

The options market is different than the stock market. Stocks give you a piece of ownership, while options are simply contracts that allow you to buy and sell a stock in the company by a certain time. This means that options traders work on a completely different platform than stock traders, and options trading strategies must be learned separately. Thankfully, there are many books about option investing on the market today that provide step by step instructions for buying and selling options and easy to understand information on market conditions.

Option as a Strategic Investment by Lawrence McMillan is one of the best books about option investing out there, with over 300,000 copies sold. It is considered one of the best options trading books, because McMillan teaches traders buying and selling strategies for long term equity anticipation securities, also known as LEAPS. He also goes over neutral trading and how it works and other advanced options strategies. This book is great for options traders who already have some basic experience within options markets and are hoping to build upon that knowledge.

The Options Playbook is one of the books about option investing that provides easy to understand strategies for executing trades within options markets. Overby eliminates complicated trading language, so that anyone can read this book and utilize its valuable information. This book includes a section called “The Rookie’s Corner,” which addresses common mistakes made by beginners. He also includes basic descriptions of terms, options greeks, and the effect of volatility.

Option Volatility and Pricing by Sheldon Natenberg teaches all of the important aspects of options trading to new professional options traders. It is a comprehensive guidebook and one of the best books for long term investment options and strategies today. In this book, amateur traders will learn about the foundations of option theory, hedging, risk analysis, and volatility contracts.

In Lee Lowell’s book Get Rich with Options, traders will learn the fundamental strategies to use in options trading. Lowell also delves into how to set up a home business, and use options trading programs and websites. Going beyond the basics, this book includes added information on hedging, selling option credit spreads, and more. Lowell gained his knowledge from experience as an options trader himself in the New York Mercantile Exchange.

You won’t have to worry about sifting through hard to read language with this quick start guide by ClydeBank Finance, because it was created specifically as a teaching tool as opposed to a research book. In this guide, you’ll learn the basics of put and call options, how to analyze value and volatility for risk management purposes, and all about the options greeks.

John C. Hull’s book on the fundamentals of the futures and options market is one of the great books about option investing on the market because it provides excellent information, as well as workbook material for readers to exercise their own skills along the way. In this new fifth edition, Hull has included new chapters on exotic options, derivatives, and derivative mishaps. There is a solutions manual at the back for readers to assess their work, as well. Additionally, there is a software called DerivaGem that complements the text, giving you the best value for your investment when you ultimately decide to pick this book up.

In Understanding Options by Michael Sincere, readers will learn all of the fundamentals needed to enter the options market with confidence. This book includes tips for how to maximize your portfolio, how to place an order, how to approach the market, a guide to options pricing, and more. Once you read this book, you’ll be able to set aside the top books for personal finance and start investing in options with ease.

Passarelli has written one of the best books about option investing that addresses options greeks. The greeks include delta, gamma, theta, vega, and andrho, and these help you deal with an ever-changing options market. This book also includes information on spreads, trading volatility, put-call parity and synthetic options, and more.

Getting Started in Options discusses options investing in easy to understand, non-technical language. This updated guide features examples, charts, and definitions to explain options trading for beginners and intermediate-level traders, so that they may understand how the changing options market works. It has detailed chapters on futures and index options, and discusses recent market turmoil, which has increased the volume of options trading as of late.

One of the best books about option investing for women is this comprehensive guide written by Virginia McCullough and Wendy Kirkland. Most options investing books are written for men, so these women got together to create a guide specifically for women. It teaches women how to be a successful trader, even if they have a full-time job or are full-time moms. It explains basic terms and meanings, and gives easy to understand strategies, as well as step by step instructions for how to utilize them.