Trading Option Volatility

Brian Johnson, an investment professional with over 30 years of experience, a former university derivatives professor, and an author of four pioneering books on options, introduces his latest book: Trading Option Volatility. This new in-depth book represents a breakthrough in option valuation, which has profound implications for option strategy design, option and volatility trading, and even for calculating accurate and reliable option risk metrics (Greeks). Drawing on his extensive background in option-valuation and on decades of experience in investment management and trading, Brian Johnson has developed a practical new analytical framework that generates theoretically correct and internally consistent, current and future option prices, volatility index futures prices, and risk metrics (Greeks) - across all term structures of volatilities and all term structures of interest rates. All of the required documentation, formulas, and examples are included to allow the dedicated reader to implement this new framework in practice. This new framework eliminates the invalid and unrealistic constant volatility and constant interest rate assumptions of the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) and conventional binomial option models (BOM), correcting the sizable errors that result from these assumptions. Both the BOM and BSM use different interest rate and volatility assumptions to describe the same time period when evaluating different options. This means that current and future option values calculated by the BOM and BSM are incorrect and inconsistent, as are the Greek (risk metrics) values - which rely on these invalid assumptions! Created especially for readers who have some familiarity with options, this practical guide begins with an accessible primer on all aspects of volatility, followed by a two-chapter primer on the binomial options model, followed by a primer on the Black-Scholes-Merton model. Building on that foundation, Chapter 5 provides a comprehensive explanation and detailed examples of the new option valuation and volatility aggregation framework cited above. Chapters 6 and 8, plus the accompanying comprehensive Supplement, execute and document a logical, step-by-step validation plan for all elements of this framework. The remaining chapters provide a wealth of new and practical insights for the volatility trader. You will find it fascinating that the simple, objective trade management strategies of Gamma-Scalping and Portfolio Insurance can be used to solve for the theoretical values and profits of any option or option strategy. Even more important, the Gamma-Scalping strategy can extract the realized value from an option over time, completely offsetting the loss from time decay - in the appropriate realized volatility environment. Evaluating the notorious Portfolio Insurance strategy even provides insights into managing Option Income Strategies. Finally, a number of practical and detailed volatility trade examples are examined in actual market environments. Formulas are included to facilitate the understanding of important concepts, and to provide further research opportunities for inquisitive traders. The book also includes hundreds of graphs and tables to illustrate how the framework and tools can be used in practice. A user-friendly Excel spreadsheet is also included with Trading Option Volatility. The spreadsheet uses actual market data to solve for forward volatilities, which are applied to identify and quantify volatility pricing anomalies in equity index options and volatility index futures contracts. The resulting forward volatilities are also used to calculate structurally-consistent True Vega metrics for ATM options, VIX futures, and their corresponding calendar spreads. All of the spreadsheet functions are automated through the use of push-button macros, making spreadsheet operation as simple as possible.