|  JUN 1987

How to be wrong and still profit by David L. Caplan

How to be wrong and still profit by David L. Caplan Why bother learning and using professional option strategies? Why spend the time and energy to learn how and when to use options and option strategies when, in trading futures, all you have to do is use your technical, fundamental or system analysis, pick the direction of the market, follow the trend, buy low, sell high and reap the profits? In comparison to those two or three decisions that have to be made in trading futures, option strategists have almost 40 billion decisions to make! Should options be bought or sold? Should puts or calls be used? Which strike prices should be used? Which trading months offer the best premium value? Which combinations of strategies should be used? And should options be used at all? In totality, it has been computed that there are more than 40 billion potential combinations of strategies that can be used on any ONE commodity to making a trading decision. In fact, it is so complex that, similar to chess, a computer program has not yet been invented that can outperform an expert.

by David L. Caplan