Master Options on Futures Trading By Testing Your Knowledge on Key Concepts and Strategies

John Summa and Jonathan Lubow provide an invaluable opportunity to explore your understanding of Options on Futures: New Trading Strategies in their companion Options on Futures Workbook.

The workbook chapters correspond directly to the chapters in Options on Futures: New Trading Strategies. The authors begin by summarizing the key concepts of each chapter in Options on Futures, including a brief glossary of terms. They then present a series of review questions–true/false and multiple choice–followed by supplemental exercises containing simulated trades and market conditions. Answer keys are listed in the back of the book, with helpful, extended explanations.

Topics covered include:

• Understanding S&P 500 futures
• Mechanics of S&P futures options
• The long and short of an S&P credit spread
• Essential characteristics of commodity futures and options
• Synthetic calls, naked writing, and ratio spreads and writes
• Timing the S&P 500 using put/call ratio analysis

Get a solid feel for the options on futures markets with the Options on Futures Workbook. Also included are detailed explanations of what it means to be an options writer, how to determine if options are overvalued, and when is the best time to sell options with the highest probability of success.

Efficient market theorists contend that markets are random and thus not predictable. With the publication of "Trading Against theCrowd, " however, noted author, economist, and professional trader John Summa convincingly shows that investor sentiment can be incorporated into profitable stock and stock market trading systems. In this groundbreaking book, Summa explains how to use popular gauges of crowd psychology, such as put/call ratios, option-implied volatility, short sales, investor surveys, and advisory opinion to trade against, or contrary to, prevailing market sentiment. He also makes compelling arguments against the efficient markets hypothesis with the presentation of his own quantitative weekly bear and bull news-flow intensity indices, which he builds from news scans. This data series, and other popular measures of crowd psychology, are processed through custom indicators that are programmed into profitable trading systems, such as Squeeze Play I & II, Tsunami Sentiment Wave, and the Fourth Estate. "Trading Against the Crowd" is the first book to provide a comprehensive assessment of investor crowd psychology, offering valuable market timing tools and trading techniques, including: MetaStock and Trade Station system and custom indicator code; comparative statistical studies of CBOE, OEX, and equity-only put/call ratios; straightforward instructions for combining price triggers with sentiment indicators; a practical guide to understanding put/call ratios, short sales, investor surveys, newsletter opinion, and stock market news-flow intensity; how to use LEAP options as trading vehicles to avoid use of stop loss orders; use of put/call ratios for trading the Treasury bond futures market; and test results and evaluation of trading system performance. Many of today's professional money managers rely on investor sentiment for improved market timing. They know that at extremes of market sentiment, markets tend to be the most predictable."Trading Against the Crowd" shows how you can begin to profit from these short- to medium-term sentiment waves generated by the actions of the speculative crowd. Put into practice powerful sentiment data using thoroughly back-tested trading systems, and rise above the herd mentality of the investor crowd, where potentially large profits await.

Learn How to Profit from Option Selling and Time-Value Decay

"John Summa and Jonathan Lubow make a special contribution to the trading literature with their book Options on Futures: New Trading Strategies. Among other notable features of the book, the authors present their favorite trading setups for S&P 500 and commodity futures options, an excellent chapter covering SPAN margin requirements, and actual trades and follow-up adjustments under far from ideal market conditions. The book drives home the point that options on futures should be part of any trader’s arsenal. The authors’ premium selling approach will come as an eye-opener for many options traders who remain confined to option buying strategies. If you want to learn how to trade options on futures, there is no better place to start. This outstanding book, coauthored by John Summa, who is one of the best options educators and traders in the business, provides a practical, hands-on explanation of how to trade options on futures. Options on Futures is full of trading nuances and key insights that make it uniquely effective. Highly recommended reading!"
–Steve Bell, General Partner, Intraday Investments
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii