What is the best software out there for analyzing different options strategies, pricing options, analyzing Greeks, what if p/l scenarios,etc, etc? Price is no object. What do the the hedge funds use to analyze option strategies?
Modeling and running "what-ifs" for vanilla options? Manipulating greeks and visualizing the effects on PnL? Almost any retail product can do what you need it to do. Most hedge funds write their analytics in house with an emphasis on dbase connectivity. The modeling is simple. You'll probably be well-suited with a product like optionvue If you'd prefer to write your own models in a best of breed product: expo
Many funds have in-house proprietary databases and analytics. It is very hard to get the flexibility in off-the-shelf solutions. For the flexible platforms, the cost of acquisition approaches the cost of development, so one must do the requisite trade-off analysis to determine the best solution. Even with in-house development, you would be surprised to know how many quants and traders revert back to using Excel or Matlab under pressure. In a lot of ways, a genuine spreadsheet interface to a relational database is the ideal platform. I have heard good things about Expo in that regard, as arb mentioned, but I have no experience with it. Anyway, hurling money at this particular problem will probably result in dissatisfaction. Do the trade-off analysis on buying versus a small team of developers working off open-source infrastructure. None of the platforms are going to weave straw into gold. -segv
The software license is module-based. I paid $2000+ about 10 years ago... You can download a student version for free.