Complete Encyclopedia for Covered Call Writing Paperback – 1 January 2011

Teach yourself the art of writing covered call. This book has everything that you need to know to be a successful covered call writer.Before purchasing this book, I had a hard time deciding which indicators to use and how to use them for conducting technical analysis. This book easied it all. Now, I take hardly a few seconds to read the chart and make a decision on how the stock is going to behave in the coming weeks.A great insight has been given on writing in-the-money call options. This is to me is an eye-opener, as I was writing only the out-of-the-money call options.Purchase this book, read, practice and start making money!

Comprei o livro, e hoje sou assinante da The Blue Collar Investor.É um livro excelente, com muito material bem organizado. É fácil de ler, a linguagem é clara e simples.Me sinto pronto para começar a experimentar os métodos descritos no livro.

Alan have done a great job with this book which obtains valuable information for those who want to operate Covered Calls in a safe way and in the most efficient way.

I fully recommend this book to all who are actively investing with or considering covered calls. I am new to covered call writing and consider this book, and Alan Ellman's other two books, the three most essentially resources for covered call writing in my library. Alan Ellman has years of practical experience with covered call writing so he has been there and done it, and his Blue Collar Investor methodology is based on those years of practical experience. Unlike a lot of other investing books where one book from an author is a glossy rehash of their previous books, the "Complete Encyclopedia for Covered Call Writing" complements the "Cashing in on Covered Calls" and "Exit Strategies for Covered Call Writing" books. I found the style of writing for this book was the same as the other two books - easy to read, understandable, and full of practical, real-life examples. I had been searching for a long time for one book, or a series of books, that presented a clear, concise, and practical methodology for covered call writing. Alan Ellman's books were exactly what I had been searching for.

Pros:* This book is written in very simply language yet the system is powerful. It opened my eyes to the fascinating world of covered call writing like no other book. After reading it, I was skeptical that such a simple system could work. So I started using it with small positions and gradually increasing my stake over time. Although I have not achieved the maximum return the book states that is possible, I did have reasonable gains and very few losses (small ones).* The charts are beautiful, all in full color with clear annotations.* Nice real life examples.Cons:* His spreadsheet is confusing and could be vastly improved. For some reason, he uses the round function to perform some calculations. This, in my opinion, should not be done since removing decimals could potentially distort numbers in large positions.* His math does not consider operator precedence so you have to "fix it" yourself. For instance, if you wrote call option xyz at P0 and bought it back at P1, the return on investment percentage (ROI %) would be (P0-P1)/P0; in his book he writes something like P0-P1/P0, which is of course wrong since removing parenthesis would cause P1/P0 to be calculated first. This will hopefully get fixed in future editions.* Sometimes it takes too many pages to explain a simple concept, This is not big deal for me. In fact, I definitively prefer that to other books that give little to no details. For instance, the explanation about the reason he uses 1 month calls instead of longer time frames could have been done in a paragraph but it takes him 2 to 3 pages. That's fine with me.* The "hit a double" concept sounds great in theory. But he does not explain (at least not in detail) the risks of holding the down stock after covering the call. Should the stock continue falling, the losses will be greatly enhanced. Yes, the stock may go back up as in his examples, but what if it doesn't?* I would LOVE to see candlesticks charts instead of OHLC.* I would also like to see more details about Implied Volatility (IV) and how to use it to find trades in ones' favor.Recommendations:* Purchase the book. Don't worry about price, it will pay itself with the first trade.* Start with safe ITM calls to build your confidence up. Do not over extend yourself with risky OTM positions.* Create your own spreadsheet and carefully double check your calculations BEFORE placing the first trade. You don't have to be a math genius to create your own spreadsheet but if you are not good in math, then find another profession since trading is not for you. I don't care how many engineering degrees you claim to have, be humble. The market does not care if your numbers and formulas are wrong, but your portfolio will surely suffer your ignorance and arrogance.* Some people complain that he does not mention puts nor does he recommends them. I politely remind all those people to double check the book title. It is "Encyclopedia of Covered Call Writing", NOT put writing!!!! Don't blame the author for not including something he never promised.Final comments:You can't go wrong with Alan's book. Congratulations to him for writing such a useful book! I really hope he writes more as good as this one.

I have been selling covered calls for a long time and I was always trying to find better ways to increase my returns with less risk. I came across Alan Ellman's book Complete Encyclopedia for Covered Call Writing, and after reading numerous books on Options, this one is by far the best, no other one comes close. Wonderfully written and easy to follow. Alan's attention to detail makes this the "Bible" for Covered Call Writing.