Options Markets

This was our options text book at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For all the technicalities involved, "Options Markets" is relatively easy to understand and follow with plenty of examples charts, graphs and tables.John C. Cox and Mark Rubinstein also provide sage advice and recaps, even far into the book, for example:"for initiating and maintaining neutral positions:1. Never initiate a neutral position where one side of the position is unfavorable2. Whenever one side...becomes unfavorable, liquidate that side and replace it with another option with a favorable price3. Never adjust by buying an overpriced option or selling an underpriced option4. If possible, always adjust by buying an underpriced option or selling an overpriced optionAlthough the book is a little old, the fundamental principals are sound and so well explained as to make this a truly valuable learning tool for puts, calls, market structure, general arbitrage relationships, exact option pricing formulas, and general option applications.

I bought this book 7 years ago, and just recently took it back off the shelf to read/reread sections related to my current work. Book is packed with explanations that facilitate understanding of these complex instruments. And it's nice to see how the binomial model is developed by its inventors. I highly recommend this book to all seeking to understand how to price and analyse options. The reason I gave it 4 stars was that book has an equities focus.

Always an up-to-date work. The excellent analysis of every aspect of options ranks it a must for the researcher (speculator or agent trader) in order to comprehend thoroughly the real nature and forces of the derivative instruments of the markets and obtain a strong infrastucture for consequent reading on strategies and technical analysis. Mathematics of the book are plain and worth reading to the last equation, for they prove to be the key to the understanding and valuation of any novelty work on the subject.The authors' state-of-the-art multiple remarks and explanations on options prices,their factors and sensitivity factors makes it an everyday's book, besides its academic value. A stand alone book for traders that once you get it is to be read over and over in sequence with any new techniques to be tested.