Basic Black-Scholes: Option Pricing and Trading

Dr. Crack studied PhD-level option pricing at MIT and Harvard Business School, taught undergrad-, MBA-, and PhD-level option pricing at Indiana University (winning many teaching awards), was an independent consultant to the New York Stock Exchange, worked as an asset management practitioner in London, and traded options for 20+ years. This unique mix of learning, teaching, consulting, practice, and trading is reflected in every page. This revised 7th edition gives clear explanations of Black-Scholes option pricing theory, and discusses direct applications of the theory to trading. The presentation does not go far beyond basic Black-Scholes for three reasons: First, a novice need not go far beyond Black-Scholes to make money in the options markets; Second, all high-level option pricing theory is simply an extension of Black-Scholes; and Third, there already exist many books that look far beyond Black-Scholes without first laying the firm foundation given here. The trading advice does not go far beyond elementary call and put positions because more complex trades are simply combinations of these. UNIQUE SELLING POINTS -The basic intuition you need to trade options for the first time, or interview for an options job. -Honest advice about trading: there is no simple way to beat the markets, but if you have skill this advice can help make you money, and if you have no skill but still choose to trade, this advice can reduce your losses. -Full immersion treatment of transactions costs (T-costs). -Lessons from trading stated in simple terms. -Stylized facts about the markets (e.g., how to profit from reversals, when are T-costs highest/lowest during the trading day, implications of the market for corporate control, etc.). -How to apply European-style Black-Scholes pricing to the trading of American-style options. -Leverage through margin trading compared with leverage through options, including worked spreadsheet examples. -Binomial and Trinomial models compared. -Black-Scholes pricing code for HP17B, HP19B, and HP12C. -Five accompanying Excel sheets: forecast T-costs for options using simple models; explore option sensitivities including the Greeks; compare stock trading to option trading; GameStop example; and, explore P(ever ITM). -Practitioner Bloomberg Terminal screenshots to aid learning. -Simple discussion of continuously-compounded returns. -Introduction to paratrading (trading stocks side-by-side with options). -Unique regrets treatment of early exerc