International Securities Exchange (ISE)
ISE Reports Record Monthly Volume for January 2008
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Feb 13, 2008 - 8:08:27 PM

ISE Reports Record Monthly Volume for January 2008

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) reported that in January 2008, its options exchange traded a record average daily volume of 4.8 million contracts. The ISE Stock Exchange traded a record average daily volume of 90.7 million shares in the same period.

Average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts increased 73.5% to a record 4.8 million contracts in January as compared to 2.8 million contracts during the same period in 2007. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 82.2% to 101.6 million contracts from 55.8 million contracts in the same year-ago period.

ISE's market share statistics continue to be negatively impacted by trading strategies that are permitted based on a non-economic rationale.   These strategies include dividend trades and synthetic short interest trades. These trades temporarily inflate and distort trading volume and market share when transacted.

Monthly Highlights - Options Exchange

ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in January.

On January 2, 2008, ISE began quoting and trading ISE FX OptionsSM in penny increments.   Open interest in ISE FX Options reached 405,590 contracts on January 31, 2008 and average daily trading volume was a record 10,505 contracts for the month.

On January 11, 2008, ISE began trading options on the following FocusShares exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track the performance of four of ISE's unique proprietary indexes: FocusShares ISE-CCM Homeland Security Index Fund (Ticker:   MYP), FocusShares ISE SINdex Fund (Ticker:   PUF),   FocusShares ISE Homebuilders Index Fund (Ticker: SAW) and FocusShares ISE-Revere Wal-Mart Supplier Index Fund (Ticker: WSI).   Timber Hill LLC serves as the Primary Market Maker for all four of these new options.

On January 30, 2008, ISE and Eurex announced that they will jointly develop a new Options Trading System for ISE. Eurex and ISE are currently finalizing plans for the joint development effort and expect the new platform to launch in early 2011. While the new system is under development, ISE's options exchange will continue to operate on the OMX CLICK technology platform.

ISE traded more volume than any other options exchange in 1,098 of 1,884 issues in its listings.