Options With A Cherry On Top - Book Review
A handy desk reference for Tastytraders
Overview
Vicki Lee Dillard in her introductory message from the author describes Options With A Cherry On Top as “a basic supplemental companion guide, best used in conjunction with the content provided by tastytrade.com". I like to think of her companion guide as an excellent and thorough set of notes taken by a fellow student who took a class a semester or two before you from a seminar on options trading. The kind of straight A student that organized and typed up their copious lecture and study notes because that’s just who she is and she kindly shares them with you. A reader of Options With A Cherry On Top could glean a good deal of information from using this book as a standalone reference for the 52 options trading strategies contained within. In this sense it is a handy reference to options trading strategies one may not be familiar with, however, given that these are notes taken from a specific source, that is the numerous Tastytrade educational videos, a reader will derive the most benefit from this desk reference when you follow Vicki’s advice and use it in “conjunction with the content provided by tastytrade.com" because Vicki’s notes derive, as the cover notes, from the Tastytrade mechanics and research. There are other books which cover options trading strategies in general but if you are new to options trading and new to the Tastytrade mechanics and philosophy you couldn’t ask for a better set of notes from a student who has clearly listened to hours and hours of Tastytrade broadcasts and videos and condensed these for you in a well organized format. With very little to no promotion and with readers discovering the book through Amazon recommendations, Twitter, and search engines Vicki recently noted that approximately 1000 copies of Options With A Cherry On Top have been downloaded or ordered since it was released in January of this year. Personally I think that with some modifications, which I’ll cover shortly, I think Tastytrade should make a copy of this book available for free to everyone who opens a Tastytrade account because as helpful as all the Tastytrade videos are they are also overwhelming for someone new to options trading and having a good reference guide in print goes a long way towards making sense of individual options strategies within the Tastytrade mechanics and philosophy.
According to her Tweets Vicki first “got the trading bug in 2005” however, it wasn’t until April 2018 that she opened a tastybites account at Tastytrade after having “just shown up everyday” to learn a bit more from Mike and his whiteboard , Tom and Tony, Liz and Jenny, and others at Tastytrade. Options With A Cherry on Top benefits from Vicki's lack of a professional career in options trading in that it is very focused on its purpose as a reference for these 52 trading strategies according to the Tastytrade mechanics and that’s it. As I understand it this book started as something for herself, as any new trader might do, in trying to organize her thoughts and notes from various sources and grew as a labor of love to share with a broadening circle of folks. However, don’t be mistaken into thinking these are just some casual notes from Vicki. Options With A Cherry On Top (OWACOT) represents the first in a series of trading desktop references with future editions on Hedging: Offsetting Risk, Daytrading Strategies, and Bitcoins. In other words, Vicki’s a serious student of investing strategies and her attentiveness and focus benefits the reader of OWACOT. Vicki’s not only a serious student but also a generous one as proceeds from OWACOT thus far have gone to two charities: ASPCA and “a much-needed donation to he Navajo Nation to help in their overwhelming battle against COVID-19”. Vicki’s reference book benefits from her perspective as one relatively new to options trading and to the Tastytrade approach by keeping focused on the essentials needed to trade each strategy.
A Peak Inside
As noted previously Options With A Cherry On Top contains reference material for 52 options trading strategies. Here is the Table of Contents:
Each trading strategy in Options With A Cherry On Top follows the same well designed blueprint: what do I really need to know in order to make a trade with this strategy, how do I manage the trade, what are the risks, and when to close the trade. Just the essentials.
A Companion Guide
How does Options With A Cherry On Top (hereafter abbreviated as OWACOT) work as a companion guide? Let’s say you’re a frequent follower of the LIZ & JNY Show, which streams weekdays on Tastytrade from 11 am to 12 pm Eastern in the US, then you’ll regularly see them enter a Jade Lizard trade. Maybe like me, the LIZ & JNY show marks the first you’ve heard of this exotic creature, which makes sense, given that they are credited with naming this strategy (With the “Jade" evolving from “J” for Jenny and “Lizard" from Liz’s name). Turning to page 59 of OWACOT one gets a concise understanding of the context in which one might consider a Jade Lizard, the setup, the risks, managing the position, and closing the position.
First, note the green border which is Vicki’s design tip that this is a bullish strategy. Second, once a reader becomes familiar with the basic design layout a reader can flip to any strategy and go directly to the reference material most relevant at that moment for them. For me these one page summaries by Vicki serve as a quick overview of a strategy as I first become familiar with each and then a constant reference as I begin to deploy them in my trades. Given the stated role of OWACOT as a companion guide to the Tastytrade mechanics and research a reader will get the most benefit out of Vicki’s reference if it is used in conjunction with the learning material on Tastytrade. For example, if the Jenny & Liz eponymous Jade Lizard strategy appeals to you and you want to learn more then you can turn to Tastytrade’s Learn Center and under Options Strategies choose the Jade Lizard which provides not only a brief overview but Tastytrade videos related to this strategy such as:
An overview of the Jade Lizard with Mike and His Whiteboard.
Lizards 101 with Liz and Jenny on Know Your Options
Learning from the originators of the Jade Lizard with the Liz & Jenny strategy workshop.
Vicki has made room after each strategy page for a reader to write notes. Personally, I’ve modified OWACOT by separating each page into a three ring binder with tabbed dividers and inserting pages from a 13 column analysis pad to keep track of trades and notes for each strategy.
This is why I prefer the hard copy of a paperback over the eBook versions because this allows me to take Vicki’s notes and make them my own. Receiving a semester’s worth of lecture notes, even from an honors student isn’t going to result in a good understanding of the material until you make it your own by engaging with the material in a manner best suited to your style. For example, for me it is helpful to see the risk profile graphics associated with each strategy and so I’ve begun printing these out from Tastytrade and putting them with each strategy in OWACOT:
Jade Lizard images courtesy of Mike and His White Board and Tastytrade
For a new options trader like me a reader may also find it handy to bookmark the Tastytrade glossary for reference to unfamiliar terms in Options With A Cherry On Top.
For my money a hard copy of Vicki’s Options With A Cherry On Top is the perfect companion for novice and established options traders who follow the Tastytrade mechanics of options trading. However, as the author notes at this time Options With A Cherry On Top is “not endorsed by , was not commissioned, and is in no way part of Tastytrade and/or any of their affiliates/associates”. I hope though that in the future Tastytrade encourages and perhaps collaborates with Vicki on future editions of this book and other of her reference book series as readers would benefit from such a partnership.
Giveaway
Each Saturday in September I will be giving away one copy of Options With A Cherry On Top to a subscriber of Option Charlie’s Trading Journal. Subscriptions are free so there is no purchase necessary to enter. Simply subscribe to Option Charlie’s Trading Journal and you’ll automatically be entered to win any of the Option Charlie’s Book Club giveaways starting with a hard copy of Options With A Cherry On Top. Every Saturday during the month beginning this Saturday, September 5th I will pick one subscriber and notify them by email that they’ve won. Winner’s can then provide their mailing address and I’ll mail their free copy the following week. Pretty simple, eh?
Where to Purchase
If you wish to pick up a copy of Options With A Cherry On Top it is available in the following formats:
$0.99 Kindle eBook
$19.99 Paperback