Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I personally prefer stock, bonds, and mutual funds, but you can make a ton of money trading futures and options. As the author says "People can reap huge profits, or lose their shirts".
The book gives a very good overview of all the major markets, including history of futures trading as well as how large an order should be, the typical margin put up, and how volitle of and investment a particular futures market can be, like advising corn as a good starting point and staying away from metals. I also agree with that philosophy. Another thing the author does in explaing the markets that i like is that he informs the reader of all the factors that can influence price fluctuations and how to try to time your movements into and out of the markets based on these trends. I also like that he does admit that there is a time to sell a winner and to sell a loser to cut your loses instead of going deeper in debt. sometimes it is best to get out after your first margin call.
The thing that I think makes the book most valuable are the options strategies. These also work very well with stocks and some index funds. As the author states these are very limited profit potential, but there is also very little risk. If you guess the market pretty well then there is almost no risk. My favorite of these is also the most basic the straddle option. Here you can make money if prices go up on down, but not if they remain fairly consistent. You typically purchase and at the money call ( right to buy) option and an at the money put option ( right to sell)the only risk involved is the money that is initially paid for the option. Both are purchase at roughly the same strike price so if a price swing up or down will net the option holder some money. Their are other strategies such as the bear put spread, and bull call spread as well as married options were you are actually buying futures. I personally do not like the three becasue all involve selling an options contract which theoretically can have unlimited loss potential. Unless you are very experienced and have a good track record stay away from them.
In conclusion options and futures are very risky intruments. I would advise simply playing the stocks and funds, but if you like this market i would advise buying optiosn, the most you risk there is the amount you paid for the options, and there are no margin calls, I persoanlly know someone who was almost driven to bankruptcy becasue he did not know what he was doing and got into the futures market. I must admit though that the futures market intrests me more than and other area of finance and investing.
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