Keene on the Market: Trade to Win Using Unusual Options Activity, Volatility, and Earnings Hardcover – 27 September 2013

informative

Regardless of your skill level, this is a very good read for those of whom that trade/invest options.The author is very insightful using what has and what hasn't worked for him under his tenure as an options trading machine. This book is for all skill levels. The author starts at the very beginning assuming you know absolutely nothing about options, and he does this in a very intuitive fashion without the complex mathematics that's usually involved with options. Quite frankly, no beginner nor intermediate trader wants to see a bunch of Greek letters grouped together in a complex formula to explain something that could be explained in simpler terms. That's left for the advanced option junkies when they've honed their craft, and there are plenty of math-heavy option books out there to choose from. He also briefly touches on many subjects in: economic, quantitative, and technical analysis giving some wisdom on how important these topics are as they will be used in creating a trade setup.The author then proceeds to explaining what variables affect options and when to take advantage of these variables. There is a lot of focus on implied volatility, which will be part of his his trading plans. Rolling up his sleeves, the author then gets into the meat and potatoes explaining strategies from simple to more complex; and also from income-bearing less risky to very risky and blow-out potential. While explaining the strategies, the author explains: when, how, and why to use these strategies in their particular environments.In the last part of the book, the author gets into both capital preservation and risk management strategies. Furthermore, he puts it all together from the thought to the execution of the trade. There is a lot of focus on creating a plan to prevent a blow-out as well as the risk versus reward setup. This part reminds me somewhat of a blackjack layout or gameplan, but very detail orientated.My only small negligible complaint as others may have mentioned are the end of the chapter questions. I was hoping that the questions would be more applicable, but the questions presented are really testing whether you were paying attention. I say that this is negligible because the number of examples in the chapter clearly make up for it and then some.Overall, I enjoyed this text, there's a plethora of tips and ideas to make yourself a more efficient options trader/investor. I'm already recommending it to several friends and coworkers that want to understand options but without the heavy and uncomfortable feeling of mathematics.I hope that this review helps you in your decision.

Very disappointed in this book. most useful content could be found on one page, rest of book essentially marketing exercise for his trading room services. Do not waste your money buying this book. I returned it.

This book is filled with Fluff till page 170, its all Keene worked 11 years as pit trader and join his chatroom. Save ur self some money and put a hard pass on this book, I regret buying it and Im here to return it at a UPS store as we speak !

I agree with the other authors comments so I won't repeat many of their thoughts here. I would have liked to give the book a 4.5, but since it is the best option book i have read to date, I couldn't give it a 4, so I gave it a 5 (one should still read McMillan's book if they have not yet) One of the many things I liked toward the end of the book was the discussion on money management and investing according to a confidence scale. I would have liked to see more analysis of how the confidence level was reached, and hopefully that will come in another edition of the book. The book is full of insight on interpreting option statistics,e.g. where purchasing calls or puts are not necessarily bullish or bearish respectively. Many of the examples in the book described the option trade but did not include the underlying price, which i thought may have helped understand better the trade described. I also would have liked to see the thought process involved in selecting the underlying stock from analysis of the time and sales data for 'unusual' option activity. I realize that is part of the author's online service so I respect that detailed information on this may be proprietary and could not be made available in the book. I admit I have some doubt as to the usefulness of these scans for 'unusual' option activity as I have been a subscriber to more than one 'options guru' in the past claiming (I paraphrase) 'their missile attack showed up these trades on their screen' , but was not impressed with their performance (or lack thereof). In summary, i highly recommend this book and there should be a place for it on any options traders bookshelf.