Reddit reviews Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives

There is two ways to go about this. You can pick up a textbook, this book is a staple for new students. Or if you just want a broad and entertaining overview there are plenty of books like "All the Devils are Here" or "The Big Short".

Credential: I was a professional options trader, I know Natenberg and he taught me options in a classroom setting.

Natenberg's book is still considered the introductory textbook for professional options floor traders. I think most serious options traders will tell you that the text is dry and dense though. I find it hard to read: "When buying (selling) a put (call), the price of the put (call) will increase (decrease) when the underlying prices goes down (up)."

As a reference text that will give you a strong underlying basis for options and start you on the path to understanding why and how they behave as they do, Hull is second to none: http://www.amazon.com/Options-Futures-Other-Derivatives-John/dp/0138874980

You'll find copies of this around the desks of quants in trading operations.

Taleb's Dynamic Hedging has already been commented on in this thread -- I think its Taleb's best work, but others seem to disagree.

I have a general theory that the hard part about options is TRULY understanding/internalizing options behavior, so last year I started writing a short ebook that is not super technically deep, but gets to the intuitions and motivations behind options pricing and behavior. I wrote most of it on a plane from Europe to the US and never really edited it or worked on it further, but I'd like to polish it eventually.

Would love feedback. https://leanpub.com/options