BGF,

Great questions.  Not too deep at all.  We plan to serve both options neophytes and hard core options users/experts.  In fact, we're working on a product with software elements that address both of your questions and many more, and we deliver the information in graphical form with a well designed interface.  You are right, the database issues are challenging,  but surmountable.

We absolutely believe that BSM is a flawed model for anything but continuous hedging and market making, and BSM is clearly flawed even for that function.  Our approach is to view the world on an arbitrarily shaped probability distribution, and to try to fundamentally derive that probability distribution from our equity research.  Implied volatility is a useful relative measure of price and we are addressing the current and historical time element of IV, but it is secondary to the fundamentals.

If you might be interesting in being a beta tester, drop me an email at philip.guziec@morningstar.com.