To the Editor : "Response to The Short End"

August 1988
BARRON'S

To the Editor:

"The Short End" was a compendium of incomplete documentation, inaccurate statements, and poorly drawn analogies. However, by accident, Lee Crawford correctly concludes that determining correct market direction is not a ticket to successful speculation.

From the inception of the listed option, I have traded over one million contracts and have made a handsome living, primarily as a speculator buying options.

Trading options is an art or skill acquired by experience, study or observation, and correctly determining market direction accounts for approximately 15%-20% of that which is required to trade successfully. The other 80%-85% is implementation.

Crawford's examples are irrelevant since he does not inform the reader of the amount of time remaining to expiration.

Worst of all, he accuses the trader in the pits of being responsible for what is, in my judgment, his naivete, lack of knowledge, improper analysis, and probably poor performance trading options.

Robert A. Kanter
Managing Partner,
ARBCO
New York City

Click here for list of all news articles.