142  •   The Intelligent Option Investor
Unlike some books, this book includes only a handful of strategies, 
and most of those are very simple ones. I shun complex positions for two 
reasons. First, as you will see, transacting in options can be very expensive. 
The more complex an option strategy is, the less attractive the potential 
returns become. Second, the more complex a strategy is, the less the inher-
ent directionality of options can be used to an investor’s advantage. 
Simple strategies are best. If you understand these simple strategies 
well, you can start modifying them yourself to meet specific investing sce-
narios when and if the need arises. Perhaps by using these simple strategies 
you will not be able to chat with the local investment club option guru 
about the “gamma on an iron condor, ” but that will be his or her loss and 
not yours.
Chapter 12 looks at what it means to invest intelligently while under-
standing the two forms of risk you assume by selecting stocks in which to 
invest: market risk and valuation risk.