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Appendix · 4 min read

Appendix A: Recommended Resources

"A book ends. The road does not. Here are some walking companions."

The list below is curated, not exhaustive. Each entry is something I have learned from, been deceived by, or both. You will form your own opinions. Read with skepticism.

Books — Technical Foundation

  • Hull, J. C. — Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives, 11th ed. (Pearson). The industry textbook. Dense. Returns rewards proportional to effort.

  • Natenberg, S. — Option Volatility and Pricing, 2nd ed. (McGraw-Hill). The volatility book. Hard. Necessary if you want to take volatility seriously.

  • McMillan, L. G. — Options as a Strategic Investment, 5th ed. Strategy encyclopedia. Useful as a reference; less useful as a primary read.

  • Sinclair, E. — Volatility Trading, 2nd ed., and Option Trading: Pricing and Volatility Strategies and Techniques. The practitioner-meets-academic perspective. Sinclair’s writing is unusually clear.

  • Tompkins, R. G. — Options Explained². Older but enduringly useful for the intuitions behind option pricing.

  • Taleb, N. N. — Dynamic Hedging. Advanced. Read only after Hull and Natenberg.

Books — Practitioner Wisdom

  • Douglas, M. — Trading in the Zone. The psychology classic. Read it once a year.

  • Schwager, J. D. — Market Wizards series (multiple volumes). Interviews with great traders. Every interview is its own lesson.

  • Taleb, N. N. — Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. Not trading books per se, but every trader must internalize them.

  • Duke, A. — Thinking in Bets. The trader’s framing of decision vs outcome. Concise; valuable.

  • Soros, G. — The Alchemy of Finance. Self-reflexivity in markets. Philosophical; dense.

Books — Behavioral Foundations

  • Kahneman, D. — Thinking, Fast and Slow. The popular treatment of his life’s work. Required.

  • Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. — Prospect Theory (1979 paper). The technical foundation; readable for the patient.

  • Munger, C. — Poor Charlie’s Almanack (or his Harvard School speech, "The Psychology of Human Misjudgment"). Mental models for thinking.

Academic Papers — The Theory

  • Black, F., & Scholes, M. (1973). The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities. Journal of Political Economy, 81(3), 637-654.

  • Merton, R. C. (1973). Theory of Rational Option Pricing. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 4(1), 141-183.

  • Cox, J. C., Ross, S. A., & Rubinstein, M. (1979). Option Pricing: A Simplified Approach. Journal of Financial Economics, 7(3), 229-263.

  • Whaley, R. E. (1993). Derivatives on Market Volatility: Hedging Tools Long Overdue. Journal of Derivatives, 1(1), 71-84. (The VIX paper.)

  • Bakshi, G., Cao, C., & Chen, Z. (1997). Empirical Performance of Alternative Option Pricing Models. Journal of Finance, 52(5), 2003-2049.

Exchange and Regulatory (Public Domain)

  • OCC — Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (the "Options Disclosure Document"). The official risk document. If you trade options and have not read it, you have homework.

  • CBOE Options Institute — educational materials at cboe.com.

  • SEC Office of Investor Education — beginner-oriented materials on options.

Analytical Tools

  • OptionStrat — strategy visualization, payoff diagrams, risk graphs.

  • OptionsPlay — education-oriented analytics.

  • Market Chameleon — IV rank, unusual options activity, earnings statistics.

  • Barchart — historical implied/realized volatility data.

  • TradingView — charting and volatility cone visualizations.

US Brokers (for context, not endorsement)

The mention of brokers here is informational, not a recommendation. Eligibility, fees, and platform quality vary; verify current terms before opening an account. None of these is "the right" broker; each suits different traders.

  • Interactive Brokers — low commissions, professional-grade platform, global access.

  • Tastytrade (formerly tastyworks) — options-focused, education-heavy, defined-risk-friendly tools.

  • Charles Schwab / thinkorswim — strong platform, free paper-trading simulator.

  • Fidelity — solid platform, slightly higher commissions, deep research.

Podcasts and Recurring Content

  • Chat With Traders — interviews with professional traders.

  • The Options Insider Radio Network — multiple weekly shows on options markets.

  • Tastylive (formerly tastytrade) — daily live programming on options strategies.

  • Mike & His Whiteboard — archived tastytrade content; foundational explanations.

Old Wolf’s Advice on Resources

  1. Finish one book before starting another. Ten books read half-way are worth less than one book read three times.

  2. Pick one channel, follow it for three months, then leave. Dependency, not learning, is the failure mode.

  3. Limit social media trading content to 1 hour per day. More than that and you are not trading — you are spectating.

  4. Be skeptical of anyone selling certainty. Markets do not offer certainty. Anyone who promises it is selling something else.

  5. Find a community, not a guru. A single mentor passes on their biases. A community of disagreeing practitioners exposes you to many.