Getting Started in Employee Stock Options

As one looks at the rungs of the corporate ladder, it's obvious that the high-end and even most of middle management are using advisors to help them manage their ESOs. However, only a small percentage of the low-end employees at companies were able to use advisors to help them get the most out of their ESOs. And many times, the only information they do get is available to them only through advisors and wealth managers who speak to them via corporate programs. Olagues and Summa want to provide employees with the basics to help them get the most of their ESOs, as well as give them the information they need that they are not hearing anywhere else. They hope the information in this book will help to protect and prevent employees and executives at any level in a company from losing money on their ESOs. They offer employees the keys to managing and hedging their ESO opportunities in addition to arming them with tax and valuation information.

John Olagues is owner of Truth in Options (www.optionsforemployees.com). Formerly a member of the Pacific Stock and Options Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Olagues cofounded Options Research, the first analytical service to provide theoretical options values to market makers and the general public. For years he was considered one of the leading options market makers in the world, having created many of the trading and hedging strategies used today. John Summa, PhD, is an author, economist, and founder of OptionsNerd.com. In 2001, Summa coauthored the Wiley title, Options on Futures: New Trading Strategies. A former fund manager, he recently launched the ESO educational Web site, HedgeMyOptions.com.