CBOE Seat Prices Set New Records: Three New Record Prices Set On Friday

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced that three seats, or memberships, were bought on Friday, February 3, each at a new record high price. Seats were bought at $890,000, $900,000 and $925,000, each beating the previous record high price of $875,000, first set on December 20, 2005 and matched on January 5th, with the first seat sale of 2006, also at $875,000. Following the sale at $925,000 on Friday, the market was $920,000 bid and a seat was offered for sale at $1,000,000.

Friday's record seat sales follow a record breaking January at CBOE, with trading volume for the month the busiest in the Exchange's history. January's volume of 53.9 million contracts was an increase of 55% over January 2005, and surpassed the previous monthly record of 49.6 million contracts from October 2005.Average daily volume of nearly 2.7 million contracts at CBOE during January was also a new all-time record. The CBOE Futures Exchange also set new records with volume in futures on the VIX of 21,502 and open interest of 19,476 at month's end.

CBOE announced in September 2005 that as of January 1, 2006 it would begin the process of converting CBOE to a for-profit stock corporation.

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, visit the CBOE website at: http://www.cboe.com/