When you want to get started in options, the best thing you can do is study what the most successful people do and document yourself well enough to learn the concepts and execute the right choice strategies at the correct times.

In this review, we will look at three of the best option trading books to learn how to work as a professional option trader. We have reviewed them thoroughly and read and reread them again and again so that you don’t have to struggle with the vast majority of option books currently on the market. With these books that appear, you will learn surely learn everything you need to understand the option market. Whichever you decide to choose will be a very good decision to start with.

 1- Options as a Strategic Investment

In this bestseller, author Lawrence G. McMillan will explain everything we need to know about any topic related to option markets. With this option trading book, we will learn from the basics to any type of strategy in the market, including ways to protect our assets using options.

This is a very, very wide options book, which can reach to 900 – 1000 pages in length depending on the edition we choose, so it can be quite dense to start studying this topic. However, it is full of practical examples, and of course, if you are looking to learn about options, with this book, you will have it very easy.

Since it is a bestseller, it has several editions for sale available. However, the two best ones are the fourth and the fifth, since there is not much difference in content between them.

In any case, both editions are accompanied by study guides that support the material explained. These include many examples and additional exercises to consolidate the contents learned in the main option trading book, so they can be very helpful if you are looking for practical help along with the theoretical lessons.

Advantages

• With this book, you will learn everything you need to know about the option market. It is the most complete guide out there
• It deals with all the viable strategies on the market, indicating which is the best for each situation
• It includes examples in many of the strategies
• Explains how coverage works with options

Disadvantages

• It is a very dense book and can be challenging to read in some parts
• In many of the examples, the profit/loss balance charts are missing
• The study guide comes separately, so we’ll have to pay for it too

My personal opinion: Options as a Strategic Investment is an option trading book that is undoubtedly excellent. It has provided me with a new way of understanding many of the strategies that I personally did not pay as much attention to as they possibly deserved.

2. Get Rich With Options: Four Winning Strategies Straight from the Exchange Floor

In his book, its author, Lee Lowell, will explain how, through four option strategies, it is possible to make money with options trading using only these techniques.

His option trading book is structured in three main parts. In the first part, he will explain the basic concepts related to options, such as the effect of implied volatility, or how option contract premiums are priced. In the second, he will explain four options strategies, three of which are based on option selling. And finally, in the third one, he will show us the best brokers and market analysis tools according to his criteria.

It is an options trading book of about 270 pages long, so it is quite light to read. Unfortunately, basic concepts are explained in a somewhat confusing and messy way. However, one of the book’s strengths is how straightforward the author is describing and showing us his strategies. Along with it, he also illustrates his trades with applied examples done with his own options trading account.

However, Lowell focuses almost entirely on options trading strategies based on the selling side, so if we are not comfortable with the possibility of a high-risk trade, we may not carry out the strategies he indicates. Of course, this is up to each reader.

Although this author is mainly a commodity option trader, he uses several examples of stock options, so he shows us the versatility of the strategies he employs.

Advantages

• Easy to read book, full of practical examples, accompanied by its data graphs and profit-risk balances
• In explaining his strategies, the author is direct and gets straight to the point
• It includes advance selling strategies
• The author explains the real advantages of selling options in a clear and evident way.

Disadvantages

• He is clearly an option-selling author, so many readers may not be attracted by the profit-risk profile
• The basic concepts are somewhat confusing when explained

My personal opinion: At first, I was reluctant to buy an option trading book in which the vast majority of the strategies discussed were selling based. But, after reading it, it is clear that, for many reasons, Lee Lowell explains, the benefits are very stable in the long run and compensate for those risk profiles we talked about before.

3. Option trading for Everyone – Part I

One of the most severe difficulties I encountered when I started studying the option market was the lack of cohesion when connecting the main concepts together. In this book, I wanted to bring together all the most fundamental concepts in option trading in a practical, straightforward way with clear and concise examples.

This option trading book is structured in four chapters, in which you can learn everything you need to understand all the option strategies that are in the option market. We begin by reviewing what an option is along with their different types in a soft way and with practical examples, so that the first contact with options may be a pleasant and enjoyable one.

In the following chapters, we study exactly how the option premiums are composed, analyzing one by one its parameters and explaining how the greeks affect them. And finally, the final chapter includes a review of four realistic examples which will put into practice everything we have learned throughout the guide, so that we can consolidate all the knowledge and be ready to understand option strategies.

The book is full of practical examples of stock options only, accompanied by their corresponding risk-profit charts. In terms of length, this is a book that intends to be more of a straightforward option guide, so it has 78 pages in which you will learn everything you need to know about the basics of options.

Advantages

• It is an option trading book that intends to go straight to the point, without detours or frills.
• It is full of practical examples accompanied by corresponding risk/profit analyses.
• It is a light reading that will serve as a guide for all the basic concepts in the options market.

Disadvantages

• I have not included advanced or complicated strategies, which I will leave for the next parts.
• It is only available in electronic format at the moment.

Personal reflection: With this book, I intended to cover the need to learn all the basic and necessary concepts in option trading. It is directed to those investors who have not been initiated in options or who are not clear about how do they exactly work. After reading it, the investor will be capable of understanding the intricacies that option trading brings us.

The main idea was to create an option trading book that would serve as a reference for both learning and reviewing the basics.