Michael Benklifa - Think Like an Option Trader: How to Profit by Moving from Stocks to Options

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How to Profit by Moving from Stocks to Options

Michael Benklifa

Vice President, Publisher: Tim Moore
Associate Publisher and Director of Marketing: Amy Neidlinger
Executive Editor: Jim Boyd
Editorial Assistant: Pamela Boland
Operations Specialist: Jodi Kemper
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Cover Designer: Chuti Prasertsith
Managing Editor: Kristy Hart
Project Editor: Elaine Wiley
Copy Editor: Kitty Wilson
Proofreader: Jess DeGabriele
Indexer: Tim Wright
Senior Compositor: Gloria Schurick
Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig

2013 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

This book is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services or advice by publishing this book. Each individual situation is unique. Thus, if legal or financial advice or other expert assistance is required in a specific situation, the services of a competent professional should be sought to ensure that the situation has been evaluated carefully and appropriately. The author and the publisher disclaim any liability, loss, or risk resulting directly or indirectly, from the use or application of any of the contents of this book.

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2013

ISBN-10: 0-13-306530-8

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-306530-5

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For the memory of my father, Leon Benklifa ZL, Who greeted every man with a smile.

I want thank my Creator, who makes all things possible. I never forget (Devarim 8:11-18, Kohelet 12:14, Tehillim 107:1).

Good people and good conversations helped me write and get through this book. Fortunately, I seem to surround myself with really smart and wonderful people. I want to thank R. Eli Hirsch, who gets it, gets me, and helps me keep perspective, and Frank Fahey for teaching me the three most important words in options trading, volatility, volatility, volatility, and for continuing to be a mentor and a friend. Id also like to thank R. Yirachmiel Fried and R. Yaacov Rich for being invaluable support and friends in good times and bad. Thanks to Seth Parkoff for the perspective of a real rocket scientist. Thanks to Shelly Rosenberg for giving me my first complex option trade, which I puzzled over for days. Thanks to Oscar Rosenberg for pushing me into this. Thanks to Joseph Benporat for all your patient advice. Thanks to Dr. Susan Diamond as always for everything you do, which really is a lot! Thanks to Dr. Bonnie Floyd for your support. You are a smart cardiologist with a great big heart and an even greater soul. to Alex and Gene Lushtak for believing in me all this time.

Thanks again to Jeff Augen for opening my eyes.

A special thanks to David Lehrfield who listens to me blah blah all the time about all my ideas. You gave me a lot of good ideas. Tell the Bear thanks for his great indirect help.

My family gets an extra special thank you. There are probably only a few things more mind numbingly boring than listening to me drone on about options, but I dont know what they are, and I hope I never find out. There is nothing I enjoy more than spending time with my children, Yehudah the Wise, Shimon the Brave, Chana the Kind, and Chaim the Bold, so Im glad that the book is done, and I can get back to what is important. Thanks to my wonderful wife, Adira, because you take care of all those things I dont do, which allows me to accomplish the things I do. I couldnt do it without you. Thanks ptite mre for all your support and patience and my terrific in-laws Steve and Carolyn for all your good cheer.

Thanks one and all!

Michael Benklifa is a professional options trader and President of Othello Consulting, where he manages millions of dollars in option trades for private investors every month. He formerly served as a Financial Advisor for UBS and as a Mergers & Acquisitions analyst for several large pharmaceutical companies. Benklifa holds an MBA from Texas A&M, as well as a Diplme (Masters in Management) from Ecole Superieure de Commerce in France and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Texas. He is the author of Profiting with Iron Condor Options: Strategies from the Frontline for Trading in Up or Down Markets.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Benjamin Franklin

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelangelo