I recently received – and read – two books from a fellow who has been a Sloper, TastyTrader, and all around good guy for years: Tony Rihan. Tony has a special place in my heart, because he has historically kept me well-supplied with packages of chocolate that he has sent to me. More recently, though, he completed two self-published books – How I Learned to Trade like Tom Sosnoff and Tony Battista: Book One, Trade Mechanics (Volume 1)
I rarely trade options myself, but I know enough about the topic to realize Tony has done a really good job with these books. The first volume is a great way for people new to options to get their heads around the concepts. More importantly, it acts as a “recipe” book for dozens of specific strategies. It provides all the concrete facts about the risk, profitability, techniques, structure, and nuances of each strategy. Being a visual type of person myself, I appreciated all the risk/reward charts for each of the approaches.
Volume Two is far more of a narrative. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was just for advanced traders: instead, I would say Volume One provides the recipes and Volume Two provides the philosophy, broad strategies, and portfolio management. If one is well-versed in options already, I’d be inclined to direct them to Volume Two, as the first volume probably covers a lot of familiar territory.
Tony didn’t promise me more chocolate to mention his books; he was simply kind enough to send me a copy, and I wanted to thank him and let you folks interested in the topic know about them. Better still, he is donating all the profits from the books to charity. Check ’em out!
