CBOE Sets New Single-Day Trading Record In January

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) began the new year with a strong start by setting new records for single-day and monthly January volume. 2,501,747 contracts traded on January 19, the first time that single-day total volume ever passed 2 1/2 million contracts at CBOE. In January, average daily volume was 1,436,342 contracts, the seventeenth consecutive month that average daily volume has exceeded a million contracts per day at CBOE.

Total volume in January increased over last year's record levels, as 30,163,174 option contracts (19,153,450 calls and 11,009,724 puts) traded, compared to 30,111,559 in January 2000. Open interest in all CBOE listed options stood at 45,945,864 contracts at month's end, a 38% increase over the end of January last year, when open interest stood at 33,270,840 contracts.

During the month of January a total of 26,458,552 stock option contracts (17,391,127 calls and 9,067,425 puts) traded, an increase of 3.5% over January 2000's stock option volume of 25,576,107 contracts. Open interest in stock options stood at 42,288,884 contracts (27,596,184 calls and 14,692,700 puts) at the end of January, a 44% increase over the close of January 2000, when open interest stood at 29,454,965 contracts.

Total index option volume for January at CBOE was 3,702,377 contracts (1,761,791 calls and 1,940,586 puts) compared to 4,525,065 contracts in January 2000, a decrease of 18%. Trading in S&P 500® Index options (SPX) totaled 1,794,368 contracts (855,243 calls and 939,125 puts). Trading volume for the month of January in the S&P 100® Index options (OEX) was 810,465 contracts (420,929 calls and 389,536 puts).

Trading volume in CBOE's newest index product, the MNXSM, an index option based on one-tenth of the Nasdaq-100 Index®, continued to post impressive figures with 554,804 contracts (287,392 calls and 267,412 puts) traded in January. Average daily volume stood at 26,419 contracts, while open interest in MNX stood at 401,070 contracts at the end of January. Volume in the Nasdaq-100 Index® (NDX) was 171,701 contracts, with open interest standing at 71,744 contracts.

On January 23, CBOE launched the first Nasdaq Volatility Index, the VXNSM. Similar in structure to CBOE's Market Volatility Index (VIXSM) the widely used benchmark for tracking market volatility, the VXN tracks volatility of options on the Nasdaq-100 Index®. CBOE developed this new market-tracking index in response to customer demand for a quantified measure of volatility in today's tech-heavy marketplace.

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.