What-if scenarios are powerful tools to analyze your strategies under certain conditions. Option Workshop contains the integrated functionality to create, edit and apply what-if scenarios. What-if scenarios can be applied to strategies' positions and to strategies' charts.
In order to create a new what-if scenario or edit an existing one, open the What-if manager first. Click on the application toolbar and the following window will pop-up (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 – What-if scenarios
Select a commodity from the commodity list on the left first. Then click button on the toolbar to add a new what-if scenario. You will see the following dialog (Fig. 2 and 3)
Fig. 2 – adding a new account Fig. 3 – entering the scenario's name
Enter the scenario's name and confirm your input by clicking the OK button or pressing the Enter key. After that, the new scenario will be created and you will be able to edit it.
In order to edit a what-if scenario, select a commodity from the commodity list first, then select the desired scenario from the scenarios list in the middle (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 – what-if scenario editor
After you do that, the what-if scenario editor will be shown on the right side of the window and you may make changes to the selected scenario.
This parameter defines a way the what-if scenario will override date and time values. There are 3 options:
This parameter defines a scenario's chart line color on strategy charts . You may select any color using the color picker palette.
You may override the current price value for each futures on the current commodity. There are a few ways to do this:
Examples: 125.5
, 125.0
, 125;
Pfinal = Pmarket + Poffset
Examples: +124.5
, -124.5
, +124
, -124;
Pfinal = Pmarket * ( 1 + Poffset% / 100% )
Examples: +10.5%
, -10.5%
, +10%
, -10%.
You may override the current volatility value for each option series on the current commodity. There are a few ways to do this:
0
into the text field to disable custom volatility for current strike. This option is set as default.Examples: 0.123
, 10.234
, 1;
Vfinal = Vmarket + Voffset + Vshift
Examples: +10.5
, -10.5
, +10
, -10
.
Vfinal = Vmarket + Voffset + Vshift
Examples: +10.5%
, -10.5%
, +10%
, -10%
.
Note that customized volatility values are displayed with bold font in the table. Values displayed with normal font represent current market volatility values.
Note that Vola shift and Custom vola options can be used together, thus Vola shift will affect results of Custom vola as you may see in formulas above.
In order to rename a what-if scenario, select the desired scenario, open its context menu by right-clicking on its name in the list and select the Rename command. A Rename scenario dialog will pop-up.
Fig. 7 –
Enter a new name for scenario and confirm your input by clicking the OK button or pressing the Enter key.
In order to delete a what-if scenario, select the desired scenario, open its context menu by right-clicking on its name in the list and select the Delete command. You will get a confirmation dialog, after which the what-if scenario will be deleted.
Scenario deletion is irreversible.
What-if scenarios can be used in two ways: you may apply the scenario to the positions table or to the strategy charts .
Open the positions table by selecting one or more strategies and expand the What-if scenario selector on the toolbar above the positions table:
Fig. 8 –
Click on a scenario's name to select it or click the market item to return to the current market situation. The scenario will be applied to the positions table and the values in it will be recalculated.
Fig. 9 –
Open the strategy chart window by selecting one or more strategies and clicking the Chart button on the toolbar above the positions table and expand the What-if scenario selector on the top toolbar of the strategy chart window:
Fig. 10 –
Click on a scenario's name to select or deselect it. Click on the top toolbar to refresh the chart lines or click the popup-button labeled Click to apply changes. Then all selected scenarios will be displayed in the chart area.
Fig. 11 –
Note that there always is a special scenario in the drop-down selector named market. This scenario represents the current market situation and will be selected automatically if no other scenarios are selected.