Tom
Scollon
Chief Editor		 Day One snorkelling around the Whitsundays put paid to any honest intentions I had of doing some serious “markets” research! Then the creepy msblast.exe was just enough to convince me to leave my laptop turned off for the last few days. Sorry George but I could not get past chapter 3 – the weather was just too good.

But George Fontanills’ new book “The Options Course” is a great read – with very good coverage of the Australian market as well as the US market. An absolute essential compendium for whatever options markets you trade or would like to understand.

Fortunately the markets behaved themselves whilst I sunned myself and it was one of those weeks where you could almost see from a distance what was happening – so relaxing wasn’t too hard. This Dow though, really has a mind of its own – it will not lie down! Not even blowing out the candle on the “Big Apple” and its surrounding gardens was enough to freak out the optimists. Although my thoughts on the likely blackout culprit is some “bear put spread” desperado who reckons the only way the market is going to sit down is by resorting to some man-created disaster!

My last week away reminded me that being constantly “head in the market” is not necessarily the way to be. When the markets are “tailing” in anyway it can be a good time to break your routine – that in itself can be a refresher and help recharge the batteries for the next move.

A number of readers have asked that I provide some practical guidance as to how one actually gets started in the US options market, so I will cover that in next week’s issue.

Tom Scollon
Editor