Hello all,

I used to be relatively well versed in .Net back when 2.0 was still the latest framework and I have stayed out of the loop for a few years. Looking to kick in a new pet project, I am interested in developing in Visual C# / SQL again.

I am looking for your input on a few topics if you may :
1) SQL : what is now the best front end for SQL database management, is Visual Studio now well implemented for a graphical and fast definition and management of tables, queries etc.. ?
2) I'm looking for a RAD framework that would allow me to create at the same time the .cs files, objects definitions, properties as well as basic methods, along with creation of the SQL tables. Is such a thing available now ?
3) Most of the visualization of data will be done through grids, I am mostly looking for a full featured grid that would allow me to group, sort, filter, as well as change the properties of columns and rows to have different formatting, what would be the best free solution for that ?
4) Finance : the background of the application would be mostly financial, therefore I am wondering if there are well approved libraries for
a) market data : spot (is there a wrapper to google finance available, otherwise reuters, bloomberg ?) spot delay is not an issue
b) derivatives valuation : plain vanilla, monte carlo etc...

Thanks in advance for the help