[Glenn]

First of all, being afraid to buy an $80 book on trading because it's a waste of money is ridiculous. If $80 is a lot of money to you, you shouldn't be trading (especially options) in the first place. Secondly, when you say the options game is rigged in favor of the house, do you realize that one can write options as well as buy them? To be approved to write naked calls, you are going to have to be investing a lot of money, but to write something like a covered call, you usually just need a typical account.