This feature is similar to the one I am looking for. Can they calculate the margin change with a confidence level? I should take a closer look at it.
MoMoney-- Thanks for the suggestion. I unfortunately am not a proficient Excel user. I have it on my computer but have rarely used it. I checked out the Hoadley site and it looks like this is exactly what i am looking for. Is my lack of excel skills going to be an impediment to my use of the Hoadley software? Thanks again MoMoney -- and if any others here have suggestions it will be most appreciated.
It can calculate the margin at any price and time on the PL curve at current IV or any assumed volatility. It can also calculate the probability of hitting that point in the curve. In terms of how close the expected margin is to the actual thing, I find it's very close to the actual IB requirements. You need to define a few broker-specific paramaters at first.
Thanks for the info. The company though strikes me as one that has a propensity to nickle and dime the customer for add-ons,upgrades, data etc. I mean, $49.00 for just the trial! I believe some of the skew modeling features you refer to are only in the pro version which is somewhat more than just $1K. Nevertheless, I shall bear in mind some of the points you made and re-evaluate.
It might be a bit of a learning curve. The main advantage of Hoadley's stuff IMO is if you were planning to [EDIT: build your own spreadsheets and larger analysis in Excel or leverage some of the other features such as volatility forecasting etc.] If you weren't planning to do that then perhaps look elsewhere. There is a trial the product I believe so you could try that out first.