Keene on the Market: Trade to Win Using Unusual Options Activity, Volatility, and Earnings 1st Edition

Most trading books cater to seekers of dreams. This one shows the warts. The reader learns that learning the formulas is just a basis, and the real key is lots of hard-to-defime detail won through practice and insider-ship. The author's ongoing trading brings authenticity and truth, but his way of thinking is not based on the universal language of logic and clear English. The text gives the impression of a rough draft, and cries out for rewriting by a writer skilled in not only technical writing, but also the arcane details of option Greeks.

I've been following Andrew on Twitter and catching his segments on Bloomberg and elsewhere for close to two years now. He's obviously a very knowledgeable and successful trader, and his unique experience on the floor and upstairs makes this book a compelling read. The book accomplishes what it's marketed to do: provide options education for all levels. My main critiques below:1) The first few chapters are going to be very slow for anyone with even basic knowledge of trading in equities and/or options (again, this book is supposed to be all-encompassing, so this wasn't unexpected).2) Upon finishing the book, it felt like my money really only bought me the last 25% of the book (which is worth it in and of itself to get a deeper dive into Andrew's trading plan, details of which he sprinkles throughout the book before explaining them in full detail in the final chapters). This is where you're going to get the most value out of the book, in my opinion.3) Andrew probably won't win a Pulitzer Prize for his writing ability/style any time soon, and at times it feels like the book was only glanced at by a copy editor. Many of the questions at the end of the chapters feel like filler, and some of them reference material that hasn't been covered yet (and in some cases, the material in questions aren't covered). Still, you're not buying Catcher in the Rye, so this isn't a huge issue (though it is probably the main reason I'm not awarding five stars - this bullet point probably bothered me more than it will others).4) Overall, I am very happy with the content Andrew provided and found the book to be very educational and entertaining, if sloppy at times, and will be using it as a regular reference.

After reading about the author being the biggest independent trader for apple stock on three different occasions in the first few chapters and seeing a pitch for his website, I was worried that I had picked up a pitch book for the authors other products. Fortunately the book proved to be a good source of insight into the parts of options that I was most interested in. Things like the role of a market maker and their thought process and role in the exchanges were covered which is something I had not found in any of the other investment books I had read. In addition to this the author also did a very good job explaining the more complicated option strategies along with a very thorough breakdown of all the strategies positives and negatives. His trading approach and more importantly, discussion of his thought process were also strengths in the book. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the author said he uses ichimoku analysis as the centerpiece of his technical analysis but didn't provide much detail on how he used it. Since he indicated it was the best indicator to use, I think a little more detail and an example of how he uses it would have been appropriate since he indicated he uses all five signals when most people rely on 3. If the author ever added a supplemental chapter on this topic, then the book would easily be a 5 star resource on option investing.

Regardless of your skill level, this is a very good read for those of whom that trade/invest options.The author is very insightful using what has and what hasn't worked for him under his tenure as an options trading machine. This book is for all skill levels. The author starts at the very beginning assuming you know absolutely nothing about options, and he does this in a very intuitive fashion without the complex mathematics that's usually involved with options. Quite frankly, no beginner nor intermediate trader wants to see a bunch of Greek letters grouped together in a complex formula to explain something that could be explained in simpler terms. That's left for the advanced option junkies when they've honed their craft, and there are plenty of math-heavy option books out there to choose from. He also briefly touches on many subjects in: economic, quantitative, and technical analysis giving some wisdom on how important these topics are as they will be used in creating a trade setup.The author then proceeds to explaining what variables affect options and when to take advantage of these variables. There is a lot of focus on implied volatility, which will be part of his his trading plans. Rolling up his sleeves, the author then gets into the meat and potatoes explaining strategies from simple to more complex; and also from income-bearing less risky to very risky and blow-out potential. While explaining the strategies, the author explains: when, how, and why to use these strategies in their particular environments.In the last part of the book, the author gets into both capital preservation and risk management strategies. Furthermore, he puts it all together from the thought to the execution of the trade. There is a lot of focus on creating a plan to prevent a blow-out as well as the risk versus reward setup. This part reminds me somewhat of a blackjack layout or gameplan, but very detail orientated.My only small negligible complaint as others may have mentioned are the end of the chapter questions. I was hoping that the questions would be more applicable, but the questions presented are really testing whether you were paying attention. I say that this is negligible because the number of examples in the chapter clearly make up for it and then some.Overall, I enjoyed this text, there's a plethora of tips and ideas to make yourself a more efficient options trader/investor. I'm already recommending it to several friends and coworkers that want to understand options but without the heavy and uncomfortable feeling of mathematics.I hope that this review helps you in your decision.

Very disappointed in this book. most useful content could be found on one page, rest of book essentially marketing exercise for his trading room services. Do not waste your money buying this book. I returned it.

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