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Covered Call Writing Demystified: Double-Digit Returns on Stocks in a Slower Growth Market for the Conservative Investor

Covered Call Writing Demystified: Double-Digit Returns on Stocks in a Slower Growth Market for the Conservative Investor

List Price: $28.00
Your Price: $23.80
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: waste money and time
Review: I am a professional trader, in other words I have been making a living exclusively trading stocks and options for the past few years.
My experience has been that covered call strategy is low risk only if you have the right timing techniques to alert you to reversals. Unfortunately this book lacks in that area.
Let us take the example where you get a $1 premium on a $20 stock by selling a covered call say at a $20 strike. It is true that if the stock declines to $15 you lose $4. If on the other hand you had the timing techniques that could alert you to a reversal , you should have bought the $20 strike call back with say the stock at $19 for $0.25 making a $0.75 profit and sold a $15 strike call for $4+ which you can then close for a profit when the stock goes to $15. Waiting for the option to expire is not always the right strategy. The issue is how can you tell if there is a pending reversal and this is where timing is critical . Using these strategies you can indeed achieve double digit returns just by taking advantage of the stock short term movements.
While this book is a good introduction;to get the most benefit from this book you need to supplement it with another that focuses more on timing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I generally will not trash a book that is targeted at the novice but this will be an exception. First, I am a novice at options investing so should have been right in the middle of the target market for this book. Fact is, I learned more just searching the Internet while I was waiting for the book to arrive than I learned from the book. It is just too simplistic. All the knowledge contained in this book could have been conveyed in a 20 page pamphlet rather than this 300+ page puff piece with its wide margins and large fonts. A true disappointment.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I generally will not trash a book that is targeted at the novice but this will be an exception. First, I am a novice at options investing so should have been right in the middle of the target market for this book. Fact is, I learned more just searching the Internet while I was waiting for the book to arrive than I learned from the book. It is just too simplistic. All the knowledge contained in this book could have been conveyed in a 20 page pamphlet rather than this 300+ page puff piece with its wide margins and large fonts. A true disappointment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: YOU CAN STOP LOOKING ANY FURTHER
Review: I've been looking for every possible way to get my investment portfolio back on track since the market started its descent. What I've discovered is a huge irony: conservatism will outperform aggressiveness for a long,long time going forward. We can't just stop owning stocks, as there just aren't any acceptable alternatives. Kadavy's book gives us the prescription: stock ownership coupled with covered call writing...more conservative than just owning stocks by themselves. His book taught me exactly how to do it, in an easy step-by-step process (by the way, I haven't been able to find another book on this subject that even comes close to doing that). It's going to take me a long time to recover my losses, but at least I have hope there is a chance to do so. Using the book, my first two covered call writing trades have produced a return of over 20% annualized. The software with the book was extremely helpful in deciding which options to use. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is tired of trying to hit homeruns (and strikes out in the process) and is ready to starting hitting consistent doubles and singles. I should have been doing this years ago, but I didn't even know it existed.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disapointing!
Review: If you know a little bit about options and covered calls then this book is a waste of money. Better tittles can be found.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most profitable book I've ever purchased!
Review: Like other reviews of this book, it has made me money...in my case, quickly and regularly. What a terrific strategy. I don't agree with some of the nuisance-type criticisms though in some of these reviews. I thought that the conversational, novel type of format not only made the book very readable, but it greatly helped my understanding of the subject material and kept my interest up throughout (I also like the author's sense of humor). I'm pretty new at covered call writing and I'm the kind of investor the book was written for. So, I appreciated the writing style.

Those who said that timing strategies aren't discussed perhaps didn't get to chapter 13, which is titled "Time In The Market vs. Timing The Market." I also found ample discussion of timing and related issues in chapters 6 and 7.

Finally, one reader suggested that the book was primarily written for investors with large portfolios. The author makes it clear that there are cost efficiencies to be obtained by using this strategy with larger portfolios, but that it is equally applicable for smaller portfolios. That's why stress is placed on keeping commissions low in the chapter "All About Brokerage Accounts And Writing Call Options." I also bought the author's book titled "Covered Call Writing With Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)," which is a great book for those with lesser investable assets that want to use the covered call writing strategy and who desire simple diversification using ETFs.

All in all, a great couple of books that I would recommend to any investor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: DON'T MISS THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO CALL WRITING
Review: This book has gotten a bum rap from a couple of people who consider themselves experienced covered call writers. Didn't they read in the book description that this book is designed for people that are new to this discipline? That's what I was until I read two of Kadavy's books on covered call writing. They are a lifesaver. So don't be misled. If you are an expert at this already, you probably don't need this book. But if you are new to the subject and want a detailed program for how to do it and make steady solid investment returns, this is the one.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too much emphasis on Return, not enough on Risk
Review: This book is a good overview of covered calls for investors new to this strategy; one of the best I have seen. However, the book discusses primarily return, and minimizes discussion of risk, which I believe is a disservice to new covered call writers. Covered call writing is NOT a low risk strategy. It is LOWER risk (i.e., lower than simply owning stocks), but it is not LOW risk, and there is no guarantee of achieving the double digit returns which are advertised as being presumably easy to attain. Covered call writers still assume ALL the risk of owning stocks, less the call premiums received.

For example, it is very easy to view a $1 premium on a $20 stock as a +5% return when the transaction is initiated. But if the stock declines to $15 upon expiration, the total return is actually -$4 (-20%), which would wipe out several months of gains from other successful covered writes. This outcome is a very real possibility, even though in this book there is little discussion of this outcome or what to do about it, or, better yet, how to prevent it.

Another good book on Covered Calls is "New Insights on Covered Call Writing", which more thoroughly explains the risks involved with a covered write investment program.

As with any investment strategy, it is best to (1) learn as much as possible, (2) make sure both reward and risk are understood, and (3) practice on paper before jumping in with real funds. Toward this end, I found both books very helpful.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Timing your call writing is critical for maximum benefit
Review: This book offers a good introduction to covered call writing , is easy to understand and follow. If you are already practicing covered call writing as I have been for several years you are probably aware of the importance of timing when to sell your covered calls. By selling calls at the wrong time you could end up losing your stock and giving up further stock profits which are usually much higher than the covered call premiums you obtained. Unfortunately this book does not go into strategies for timing your sale so as to enhance your premium value but avoid the stock being called. I would recommend that this book be supplemented by other books that go into more detailes on timing option sales or purchases. I have been able to at least double my returns by using good timing strategies in addition to ideas in this book.


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