The investor will find in this book a wealth of information, and its careful study will prove rewarding and profitable. The book presents a technical discussion of the securities options market, developed so as to be of use to scholars and to serious investors, private or institutional. Sixteen alternative investment strategies are considered, including several that involve either the buying or selling (writing) of option contracts. The payoff of the strategies is grammed clearly in the light of potential dollar changes in the underlying common stock assumed to be held over a six-month ten-day period, and there is also some discussion of what might be expected with interim selling. Both professional economists and professional investors will find the relation of the subject to the theory of games and decision theory highly informative and engrossing.
The book's specific message is that, faced with certain situations, an investor can substantially improve his portfolio performance by engaging in a variety of option strategies. Option writing is especially recommended for “conservative” investors. In particular, many institutional investors may find they can improve investment performance substantially by writing options against their portfolios instead of simply holding a diversified stock portfolio. This is the first study of securities options to be dine in such detail and with such attention to alternative circumstances that may surround the investment situation.
The authors find, however, that Put and Call market he been made unwieldy by the lack of a central clearing house and by fixing of arbitrary contract periods. They suggest improvements to alleviate both these disadvantages and to improve the functioning of the options market so that more investors may be able to take advantage of this vehicle for better investment performance.
