Books like Option Volatility and Pricing — picked by fans

There are quite a few titles in the Market Wizards book collection, but my personal favorite is still the first of the series. In the book, Jack interviews different successful traders and investors. You’ll get to learn the basics of what they did (I personally know of one reader who started a successful hedge fund after reading one chapter of this book), but more importantly, you will be able to understand and explore the mindset of winning traders. Reading this book will help you mimic the behavior of some of the great traders of our time.

Of all the books about trading written over the decades, perhaps none is still so beloved, revered, and followed as this 1923 classic by journalist Edwin Lefèvre. Although technically a work of fiction, the book really is about the life and trading style of one of the greatest speculators of all time, Jesse Livermore (told under the guise of “Larry Livingston”).

What makes this book such a treasure is not just its fun prose, and interesting glimpse into what the process of investing in old exchanges and “bucket shops” was over a century ago, when ticker-tape and board boys with chalk and ladders were one’s only information about market prices, but also how the mind of one of the world’s greatest traders worked.

This book offers many gems of knowledge about trading—based upon the general principle that, although methods and technologies change, human nature does not and therefore “there is… show more.

Mark Douglas’ book focuses on practical tools and techniques to counter the gambling mentality that typifies speculative trading. He focuses on a more rational, math-based approach to participation in markets as a speculator. Although I was already a successful trader by the time I’d read Mark’s book, it reinforced that the tools and techniques I had developed to dampen emotionalism in the markets were sound.

A relatively new arrival on the list, Dreyfuss’s diligently crafted book is the most in-depth look at one of Wall Street’s most spectacular, if lesser-known, collapses in 2006.

The book takes us through the rise of two forces in energy trading embarking on a collision course that would be the ruin of one and an immense windfall of the other. Amaranth hedge fund was an up-and-comer and darling of the hedge fund space. Boasting stellar returns on its several billion in capital, it was able to raise massive sums to hand over to its wunderkind energy trading guru, the Canadian Brian Hunter.

Hunter had set out to dethrone John Arnold at Centaurus (the former Enron whiz kid and youngest member of the Forbes 400) as the biggest energy derivatives trader on the Street. Hunter’s ego soon got him into trouble when a series of disastrous and massively overleveraged bets collapsed,… show more.

The valuation of options has been the subject of numerous studies, papers, and books.

The originality of this one is that it is collecting the resulting formulae to be used in practice, and for each of them, proposing related Excel spreadsheets, and VBA coding (also with a CD included). All types of options are covered, from “vanilla” to “exotics”, on every kind of underlyings (from traditional ones up to commodities and energy).

It also develops calculation methods for the options “greeks” and volatility. But the book is not only such a catalog of formulae, these are assorted by useful comments about the best way to apply them, and their validity limits. Not surprisingly, this book is qualified as the “bible” of options valuation.

Most economists associate volume of money with price-level (inflation/deflation), not Keynes.

For him, a macro price-level does not reveal the unsynchronized dynamics affecting the prices of its components: commodities, labor, capital, raw materials, profits; it must be decomposed.

When FunCorp invests in a rollercoaster, its decision is based on present costs and future returns (ticket sales, performance, stock options, etc.).

Windfall profits will lead to more expansion; losses, to curtailed activity. Both expansion, contingent on easy credit, or recession, on the tightening of credit, depend on bankers’ use of individuals’ savings and their creation of more deposits.

For Keynes, an institutionalised banking system is essential for a modern economy but he advocated, in the public interest, for strict rules on bankers’ abuse of credit, to mitigate the inflation/deflation rollercoaster. 

This is a book made from a screenplay that tells the story from behind the felt. As a croupier you can always tell if an author knows their stuff. Stepping behind the table as a dealer Jack Manfred a rejected author becomes enmeshed in his new job. He intends to write a novel about this fascinating world of casinos. As a writer myself I can relate to his need to tell his story. London dealers are considered the gold standard in the casino world. Their intense training thins the herd. I know because my husband learned to deal at an upscale London casino just like Jack. Ray also went to The Grecian Grill an all-night Greek restaurant in the West End after his shift. That touch of authenticity gave Croupier my stamp of approval.

If there’s anything I like as much as pirates, it’s heist stories. The excellent follow-up to the amazing Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas rang every one of my bells by taking our favorite thieving bastards Locke and Jean to sea, under the command of a strong, brilliant female captain, Zamira Drakasha. And she’s not just a woman pirate – she’s a middle-aged, Black single mother, running her ship and being the best pirate any denizen of the high seas could aspire to be. Lynch caught a good bit of flack for this character, but I was delighted. You will be, too.

Caroline Popov is promoted to General Manager of the Night Hawk Casino in the California high desert.

I cheered as Caroline didn’t let anyone push her around. If, like me, you’re curious about the real story behind the gaming industry, but a trip to a casino isn’t in your future, this story is right up your alley.

I was blown away by gaming industry pro-Bertoia’s physical description of the casino, the emotional atmosphere that permeates the place, and the characters who play and work there that were so spot on. I checked my wallet to make sure I didn’t lose a bucket of bucks at the Blackjack table.

Bad Blood is edgy, fast-paced, and thoroughly entertaining. Cora Kenborn and Catherine Wiltcher create pure magic together, giving readers two characters whose hate-fueled lust heats up the pages while war and dissent brews around them. It’s a well-balanced storyline that flows perfectly. The romance and mafia elements played really well against each other. There was humor and action and fantastically written dialogue.