It takes a special set of trading skills to thrive in today's intensely volatile markets, where point swings of plus or minus 200 points can occur on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. The Volatility Course arms stock and options traders with those skills. George Fontanills and Tom Gentile provide readers with a deeper understanding of market volatility and the forces that drive it. They develop a comprehensive road map detailing how to identify its ups and downs. And they describe proven strategies and tools for quantifying volatility and confidently developing plans tailored to virtually any given market condition. The companion workbook provides step-by-step exercises to help you master the strategies outlined in The Volatility Course before putting them into action in the markets.

In Volatility Trading, Sinclair offers you a quantitative model for measuring volatility in order to gain an edge in your everyday option trading endeavors. With an accessible, straightforward approach. He guides traders through the basics of option pricing, volatility measurement, hedging, money management, and trade evaluation. In addition, Sinclair explains the often-overlooked psychological aspects of trading, revealing both how behavioral psychology can create market conditions traders can take advantage of-and how it can lead them astray. Psychological biases, he asserts, are probably the drivers behind most sources of edge available to a volatility trader. Your goal, Sinclair explains, must be clearly defined and easily expressed-if you cannot explain it in one sentence, you probably aren't completely clear about what it is. The same applies to your statistical edge. If you do not know exactly what your edge is, you shouldn't trade. He shows how, in addition to the numerical evaluation of a potential trade, you should be able to identify and evaluate the reason why implied volatility is priced where it is, that is, why an edge exists. This means it is also necessary to be on top of recent news stories, sector trends, and behavioral psychology. Finally, Sinclair underscores why trades need to be sized correctly, which means that each trade is evaluated according to its projected return and risk in the overall context of your goals. As the author concludes, while we also need to pay attention to seemingly mundane things like having good execution software, a comfortable office, and getting enough sleep, it is knowledge that is the ultimate source of edge. So, all else being equal, the trader with the greater knowledge will be the more successful. This book, and its companion CD-ROM, will provide that knowledge. The CD-ROM includes spreadsheets designed to help you forecast volatility and evaluate trades together with simulation engines.

Now you can learn directly from Sheldon Natenberg! In this unique multimedia course, Natenberg will explain the most popular option pricing strategies. Follow along as this trading legend walks you through the calculations and key elements of option volatility in this video, companion book, and self-test combination. Get The Full Impact Of Every Word Of This Traders' Hall Of Fame Presentation. You'll learn: Implied volatility and how it is calculated, so you can find the best positions; What assumptions are driving an options pricing model to be ahead of the trade; Proven techniques for comparing price to value to increase your number of winning trade; How you can use probability to estimate option prices to increase trading income. Spending time with a trading legend is usually a dream for most traders, but this is your opportunity to get the inside tactics of one of the most sought-after educators in options. With the personal touch of his presentation, Natenberg's educational tool gives all traders, beginner to advanced, access to the powerful insights that can bring ongoing option trading success.

In The Volatility Course, renowned trader George Fontanills and his partner Tom Gentile provided stock and options traders with all the information they need to trade volatility-by arming them with an arsenal of different tools to use in any market condition. But to become a successful volatility trader, you have to know how to effectively apply this knowledge and when to utilize these tools in real-world trading situations. In The Volatility Course Workbook, Fontanills and Gentile offer a wealth of practical exercises that will help further your understanding of volatility, as well as test and apply what you've learned before you take one step into the real markets-where time and money is a luxury you cannot afford to lose. This hands-on companion to The Volatility Course includes a complete answer key and covers such essentials as implied and historical volatility, VIX and other sentiment indicators, high- and low-volatility trading strategies, volatility skews, and much more.

In The Volatility Course, renowned trader George Fontanills and his partner Tom Gentile provided stock and options traders with all the information they need to trade volatility-by arming them with an arsenal of different tools to use in any market condition. But to become a successful volatility trader, you have to know how to effectively apply this knowledge and when to utilize these tools in real-world trading situations. In The Volatility Course Workbook, Fontanills and Gentile offer a wealth of practical exercises that will help further your understanding of volatility, as well as test and apply what you've learned before you take one step into the real markets-where time and money is a luxury you cannot afford to lose. This hands-on companion to The Volatility Course includes a complete answer key and covers such essentials as implied and historical volatility, VIX and other sentiment indicators, high- and low-volatility trading strategies, volatility skews, and much more.

A comprehensive study companion to The Options Course, SecondEdition In The Options Course Workbook, Second Edition, George Fontanillsoffers a wealth of practical exercises that will help further thereaders' understanding of options, as well as test and apply whatthey've learned before they take their first step into the realmarkets-where time and money are luxuries they cannot afford tolose. This hands-on companion to The Options Course, Second Editionincludes a complete answer key and covers a wide range of optionsissues. George A. Fontanills (Miami, FL) is the President Emeritus ofOptionetics, the world leader in Options Education, with officesaround the world specializing in teaching high-profit, low-risk,low-stress option trading strategies (www.optionetics.com.) Georgealso runs a hedge fund and money management company. He has writtenmany books, including Trade Options Online (0-471-35938-6), TheVolatility Course (0-471-39816-0), The Volatility Course Workbook(0-471-39817-9), and The Stock Market Course (0-471-39315-0)

Praise for The Index Trading Course "George and Tom apply their considerable options trading and teaching expertise to the arena of broad-based and sector indices. Index options traders will find the techniques, systems, and strategies invaluable-and so will those who aren't yet index traders, but want to learn to be." —Larry McMillan, President, McMillan Analysis Corporation author, Profit with Options "I've known both George and Tom for many years and have seen firsthand how they both can captivate a room with their knowledge of options trading and vibrant personalities. Now they have managed to capture that magic in this easy-to-understand how-to manual on trading index options." —David Kalt, CEO, optionsXpress Holdings Inc., www.optionsXpress.com "I traded in the OEX pit for almost twenty years and I can't believe how well George and Tom nailed the core strategies and trading intricacies of index products. Nice job!" —Tom Sosnoff, CEO, thinkorswim, Inc. "Education has been a major factor in the explosive growth in the options markets. Once again, Fontanills and Gentile have delivered as leaders in options education with The Index Trading Course and The Index Trading Course Workbook. These books provide a disciplined approach to trading index and ETF options through risk management." —Christopher Larkin, Vice President, U.S. Retail Brokerage E*TRADE Securities LLC (www.etrade.com/options) "I found The Index Trading Course and The Index Trading Course Workbook to be filled with useful and practical information on options, ETFs, the market, and trading in general. They explain the unique characteristics of these instruments in understandable terms and should provide a good foundation to those interested in trading index options and options on ETFs. The quizzes and media assignments in the Workbook are wonderful learning tools that help reinforce the information and concepts presented in the main book." —Debra L. Peters, The Options Institute

An A to Z options trading guide for the new millennium and the new economy Written by professional trader and quantitative analyst Euan Sinclair, Option Trading is a comprehensive guide to this discipline covering everything from historical background, contract types, and market structure to volatility measurement, forecasting, and hedging techniques. This comprehensive guide presents the detail and practical information that professional option traders need, whether they're using options to hedge, manage money, arbitrage, or engage in structured finance deals. It contains information essential to anyone in this field, including option pricing and price forecasting, the Greeks, implied volatility, volatility measurement and forecasting, and specific option strategies. Explains how to break down a typical position, and repair positions Other titles by Sinclair: Volatility Trading Addresses the various concerns of the professional options trader Option trading will continue to be an important part of the financial landscape. This book will show you how to make the most of these profitable products, no matter what the market does.

The Volatility Smile The Black-Scholes-Merton option model was the greatest innovation of 20th century finance, and remains the most widely applied theory in all of finance. Despite this success, the model is fundamentally at odds with the observed behavior of option markets: a graph of implied volatilities against strike will typically display a curve or skew, which practitioners refer to as the smile, and which the model cannot explain. Option valuation is not a solved problem, and the past forty years have witnessed an abundance of new models that try to reconcile theory with markets. The Volatility Smile presents a unified treatment of the Black-Scholes-Merton model and the more advanced models that have replaced it. It is also a book about the principles of financial valuation and how to apply them. Celebrated author and quant Emanuel Derman and Michael B. Miller explain not just the mathematics but the ideas behind the models. By examining the foundations, the implementation, and the pros and cons of various models, and by carefully exploring their derivations and their assumptions, readers will learn not only how to handle the volatility smile but how to evaluate and build their own financial models. Topics covered include: The principles of valuation Static and dynamic replication The Black-Scholes-Merton model Hedging strategies Transaction costs The behavior of the volatility smile Implied distributions Local volatility models Stochastic volatility models Jump-diffusion models The first half of the book, Chapters 1 through 13, can serve as a standalone textbook for a course on option valuation and the Black-Scholes-Merton model, presenting the principles of financial modeling, several derivations of the model, and a detailed discussion of how it is used in practice. The second half focuses on the behavior of the volatility smile, and, in conjunction with the first half, can be used for as the basis for a more advanced course.

An indispensable, hands-on companion to The Index Trading Course In The Index Trading Course, financial experts George Fontanills and Tom Gentile provide an in-depth look at the tools and techniques used to trade in this profitable market. Now, in The Index Trading Course Workbook, Fontanills and Gentile offer a wealth of practical exercises that will help further your understanding of index trading, as well as test and apply what you've learned before you take one step into the real markets-where time and money are luxuries you can't afford to lose. The media assignments found in each chapter are especially useful. They'll help you put the material you've read into action by prompting you to access some of the extensive media tools currently available to all traders-including financial papers, magazines, the Internet, and television. This hands-on companion to The Index Trading Course also includes a complete answer key for every multiple-choice question and covers a wide range of issues related to this discipline such as: Core stock market indexes along with the sector offerings from a variety of financial entities Actively traded index products, including exchange traded funds (ETFs), index options, and ETF options Options strategies used for different trends and volatility situations Indicators and systems Trade adjustments The art of risk management