"Successful options trading requires extensive practice. "Most options books offer theory and strategies, but don't offer the practice needed to prepare for real-world trades, where the wrong split-second decisions can cost you dearly. Expert trader Jeff Augen covers every key scenario you'll encounter in modern options trading, guides you through successful trade executions, and shows how to overcome key pitfalls that trip up most traders. You'll walk through trades designed to profit from changing prices and volatility, time decay, rapid price spikes, and many other factors.This second edition introduces powerful new techniques, and reflects the long-term impacts of the 2009 crash. New problems include:

• New CBOE Weekly Options Expiration options, and their unique pricing dynamics.
• Using collars, covered calls, and covered puts to structure income-generating trades with well-defined risk profiles.
• Using ratio trading, VIX options, volatility ETFs, and variance trading to generate profits from shifts in volatility.

Each section contains beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections, helping you build your skills one trade at a time, no matter how much experience you have--or how little. You'll find several hundred questions, all designed to mirror real life, and supported with clearly explained solutions.

"As a veteran reader of some 500+ trading and investing books and having interviewed hundreds of authors, I never take the approach that you can believe what you read or hear about how to make money in the market, so I try their theory, system, or ideas. Jeff Augen's book lays down clear guidelines to his intraday options strategy that I can report were profitable in the style I trade." --Vincent M. Rowe, President, Online Trading Academy, Texas "Augen's book breaks new ground with an indispensable and unique approach to evaluating option prices in different time frames. It also presents a new charting technique for evaluating very short-term trends lasting just a few minutes-a valuable technique for anyone who follows intraday markets. The statistical analysis and associated discussions around high-frequency trading are especially relevant in the modern financial world, which has come to be dominated by supercomputers and algorithmic trading. No serious stock or option trader should be without this book." --Sean Sztern, Alternative Strategies Group, Desjardins Securities, Montreal, Quebec "Jeff Augen's work on day trading options pulls the curtain back and reveals insights from the world of very short-term options trading. In doing so, he reveals insights beneficial even for the longer-term option trader. Specifically, Chapter 3 on trading volatility distortions introduces the idea of 3-D implied volatility surfaces. Far from being too advanced, this chapter addresses complex volatility issues in plain English that every option trader can understand. I wholly recommend this book." --Steve Lentz, DiscoverOptions Minimize Your Exposure to Market Risk and Increase Profits by Trading in Very Brief Time Frames In today's turbulent markets, traditional trading strategies have failed to provide protection from the rapid and violent changes that have swung the Dow down 330 points one day, up 280 points the next, and down 250 points at the open on the next. Fundamental analysis based on company performance and financial predictions has proven meaningless. Technical traders must now compete with institutional trading programs utilizing supercomputers that analyze and execute trades in millisecond time frames. So, how can a private investor compete in this environment? In Day Trading Options, expert option trader Jeff Augen shows you how to continue to profit even in these chaotic times. You'll learn to structure short-term trades that exploit well characterized price distortions and anomalies. You'll discover a breakthrough technique for utilizing volatility to identify the beginning and end of short-lived trends. And, you'll gain the knowledge to use this innovative technique to take advantage of financial news and planned events, rather than being at their mercy. Abandon outdated trading strategies and conventional "wisdom" Minimize your exposure to market risk and increase your profits by trading in very brief time frames and structuring positions that are direction neutral Understand why your once-reliable technical analysis and charting techniques are failing Explore new statistical evidence to discern how new advances in institutional program trading affect the private investor Discover new models for analyzing volatility in different time frames Learn to evaluate option prices by comparing overnight, intraday, and traditional measures of volatility Learn to identify and exploit short-lived volatility changes Use a newly defined charting technique to correctly time trades by identifying the beginning and end of short-term trends

Equity and index options expire on the third Friday of each month. As that moment approaches, unusual market forces create option price distortions, rarely understood by most investors. These distortions give rise to outstanding trading opportunities with enormous profit potential. In Trading Options at Expiration: Strategies and Models for Winning the Endgame, leading options trader Jeff Augen explores this extraordinary opportunity with never-before published statistical models, minute-by-minute pricing analysis, and optimized trading strategies that regularly deliver returns of 40%-300% per trade. You'll learn how to structure positions that profit from end-of-contract price distortions with remarkably low risk. These strategies don't rely on your ability to pick stocks or predict market direction and they only require one or two days of market exposure per month. Augen also discusses: * Three powerful end-of-cycle effects not comprehended by contemporary pricing models * Trading only one or two days each month and avoiding overnight exposure * Leveraging the surprising power of expiration-day pricing dynamics If you're looking for an innovative new way to reignite your returns no matter where the markets move, you've found it in Trading Options at Expiration. "Learn and profit from Jeff Augen's book: It clearly explains how to take advantage of market inefficiencies in collapsing implied volatility, effects of strike price, and time decay. A must-read for individuals who are options oriented." --Ralph J. Acampora, CMT, Director of Technical Analysis Studies, New York Institute of Finance "A fantastic, insightful book full of meticulously compiled statistics about anomalies that surround option expiration. Not only does Augen present a set of effective trading strategies to capitalize on these anomalies, he walks through the performance of each across several expirations. His advice is practical and readily applicable: He outlines common pitfalls, gives guidance on timing your executions, and even includes code that can be used to perform the same calculations he does in the text. A thoroughly enjoyable read that will give you a true edge in your option trading." --Alexis Goldstein, Vice President, Equity Derivatives Business Analyst "Mr. Augen makes a careful and systematic study of option prices at expiration. His translation of price behavior into trading strategy is intriguing work, and the level of detail is impressive." --Dr. Robert Jennings, Professor of Finance, Indiana University Kelly School of Business "This book fills a gap in the vast amount of literature on derivatives trading and stands out for being extremely well written, clear, concise, and very low on jargon--perfect for traders looking to evolve their equity option strategies." --Nazzaro Angelini, Principal, Spearpoint Capital "Instead of considering macro-time strategies that take weeks to unfold, Jeff Augen is thinking micro here--hours or days--specifically the days or hours right before expiration, and harnessing grinding, remorseless options decay for profit. He builds a compelling case for the strategy here. The concept of using ratio spreads plus risk management for as brief a period as one day--open to close--to capture expiring premium is worth the price of admission alone. A superb follow-up to his first book. Must-read for the serious options student." --John A. Sarkett, Option Wizard software