CBOE Continues Its Record-Breaking Pace In July

Trading volume at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the world's largest options exchange, continued at a record-setting pace in July with a total of 23,990,023 option contracts (15,939,018 calls and 8,051,005 puts) traded, a 27% increase over the year ago July volume of 18,838,239 contracts. Open interest in all CBOE listed options stood at 43,384,704 contracts at month's end, an incredible 78% more than the total of 24,417,811 contracts at the close of July last year.

In July, average daily volume was 1,199,501 contracts per day, making it the eleventh consecutive month that average daily volume has exceeded a million contracts per day at CBOE and surpassing July '99's average daily volume of 897,059 contracts by 34%. Year-to-date average daily volume now stands at a record 1,335,239 contracts, 47% ahead of the year-ago level of 909,951 contracts per day.

Total option volume at CBOE hit a new year-to-date record for the end of July with 194,944,866 contracts (129,055,588 calls and 65,889,278 puts) which is 48% ahead of the previous July year-to-date record of 131,942,835 contracts, set last July.

Year-to-date volume in stock options reached a record 166,362,668 contracts (116,481,139 calls and 49,881,529 puts), an increase of 67% over the year-to-date total of 99,708,745 contracts traded at the end of July 1999. During the month of July a total of 21,406,548 stock option contracts (14,827,766 calls and 6,578,782 puts) traded, an increase of 46% over July 1999's stock option volume of 14,673,468 contracts. Open interest in stock options trading stood at 39,837,316 contracts (25,002,858 calls and 14,834,458 puts) at the end of July, a staggering increase of 95% over the close of July '99's figure of 20,400,346 contracts.

Total index option volume for July at CBOE was 2,582,339 contracts (1,110,803 calls and 1,471,536 puts) compared to 4,160,775 contracts in July 1999, a decline of 38%. Trading in S&P 500® Index options (SPX) reached 1,342,179 contracts (544,129 calls and 798,050 puts) and open interest stood at 2,735,988 versus 2,912,854 from 1999, a modest decrease of 6%. Trading volume for the month of July in the S&P 100® Index options (OEX) was 878,199 contracts (411,347 calls and 466,852 puts). Open interest in OEX options stood at 215,222 contracts at the end of July.

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