CBOE Open Interest Up 54% In March

Open interest rose significantly in March at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), where open interest in all listed options stood at 77,621,760 contracts (47,046,516 calls and 30,575,244 puts) at month's end, an increase of 54% versus March 2001, when open interest stood at 50,390,150 contracts. Open interest in all CBOE equity options stood at 68,968,425 contracts (42,620,201 calls and 26,348,224 puts) at the end of March, an increase of 52% versus March 2001 when open interest stood at 45,458,133 contracts. In March, open interest in all CBOE index options stood at 8,647,997 contracts (4,424,964 calls and 4,223,033 puts), an increase of 76% versus March 2001 when open interest stood at 4,925,994 contracts.

CBOE exchange-wide average daily volume for the month was 1,032,241 contracts, a decrease of 25% compared to March 2001's average daily volume of 1,370,705 contracts. Total exchange volume for the month of March was 20,644,812 contracts (12,235,103 calls and 8,409,709 puts), a decrease of 32% from the March 2001 level when 30,155,514 contracts traded. (Note: March 2002 had two fewer trading days than did March 2001.)

Equity option volume for the month of March totaled 14,913,322 contracts, a decrease of 33% from March 2001's level of 22,288,473 contracts.

Total index option volume at CBOE was 5,729,187 contracts, a decrease of 27% from the 7,858,276 contracts traded in March 2001. Options on the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQ), were the most actively traded index contracts at CBOE. QQQ volume reached 1,647,824 contracts for the month of March, a decrease of 25% from the 2,211,781 contracts traded in March 2001, the QQQ's first full month of trading. Open interest in the QQQ stood at 3,552,114 contracts at the end of the month.

Volume in S&P 500 Index options (SPX) was 1,766,485 contracts, a decrease of 34% over the March 2001 volume of 2,693,351 contracts. Open interest in SPX stood at 3,020,964 contracts at the end of March, an increase of 5% over year-ago levels.

Trading volume during the month of March in options on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJX) dropped to 791,147 contracts traded, a decrease of 22% from March 2001's level of 1,020,640 contracts. Open interest in the DJX options stood at 682,256 at month's end, an increase of 6% over last year.

Total volume during March for options on the S&P 100 Index was 871,190 contracts. Volume in the S&P 100 Index options (OEX) was 754,646 contracts, while volume in the S&P 100 Index options with European-style exercise (XEO), launched on July 23 last year, was 116,544 contracts traded.

Volume in the Mini-NDX Index options (MNX), an index option based on one-tenth of the Nasdaq-100 Index, for the month of March was 438,982 contracts, representing a decrease of 13% from the March 2001 total. Open interest in MNX stood at 666,018 contracts, up 31% from the end of March last year.

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 website at http://www.cboe.com 4/01/02