CBOE April Volume Rises 39%, Year-To-Date Volume Up 46% - CBOE Futures Exchange Makes Strong Debut

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the world's largest options exchange, announced today that April volume totaled 31,678,263 contracts traded, an increase of 39% over the April 2003 volume of 22,772,736 contracts. This was the eighth consecutive month that CBOE registered volume gains over year-ago levels. Through the end of April, CBOE's year-to-date volume of 126,269,989 contracts traded is 46% ahead of 2003's pace of 86,535,081 contracts.

Exchange Volume, April 2004

Total Volume
31,678,263 contracts
+39% vs year-ago (Apr 03)
-4% vs previous month (Mar 04)

Average Daily Volume
1,508,489 contracts
+39% vs year-ago (Apr 03)
+5% vs previous month (Mar 04)

Open Interest
130,092,022 contracts
+41% vs year-ago (Apr 03)
+4% vs previous month (Mar 04)

Year-To-Date Volume

126,269,989 contracts
+46% vs YTD 2003

April highlights at CBOE included:

In its first full month of trading, the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) traded 8,108 contracts. CFE, which launched on March 26, 2004, is a new all-electronic, futures exchange offering futures on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX).

During April, volume in stock option classes (equities) rose 48% as over 20 million contracts traded, while index options rose 26% with over 11 million contracts traded.

Options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) were the most-actively traded index options at CBOE during April as volume totaled 3,632,963 contracts, an increase of 14% over 2003.

Index options on Nasdaq-100 Index related products posted strong gains in April: volume in options on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) surged 132%, the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQ) rose 52%, and the Mini-Nasdaq-100 Index (MNX) increased 51%.

CBOE, regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is the creator of listed options, and the world's largest options marketplace. For additional information about the CBOE and its products, access the CBOE website at http://www.cboe.com/.