CBOE Ends Year With Record Seat Prices And Record Volume - All-Time High Of $875,000 Is The Seventh Record Seat Price In December - Average Daily Volume Of 1.9 million Contracts In 2005 Sets New Record

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced that 2005 will be a year for the record books with all-time high seat prices and record-shattering volume levels.

Seat prices climbed dramatically at CBOE throughout 2005, reaching record levels midway through the year. On July 18, 2005, a CBOE seat sold for $755,000, surpassing the previous record-high seat price of $750,000 set on March 11, 1998. CBOE seat prices continued to set new records for the remainder of 2005, culminating with an all-time high sale price of $875,000 on December 20th. This is the seventh record sale price during December, and is more than three times higher than the December 2004 last-sale price of $270,000.

Volume at CBOE will also set new records this year, with average daily volume during the year of 1.87 million contracts, and an estimated total volume of 469 million contracts for all of 2005. This is almost 30% higher than 2004's record setting volume of 361 million contracts. CBOE's Index options volume will also be a record, with over 191 million contracts trading, an increase of more than 41% over last year's record pace.

It is estimated that CBOE trades more than 50.8 billion dollars in notional value daily, and more than 12.8 trillion dollars in notional value was traded at CBOE during 2005.

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