CBOE To Launch New ETF Weeklys On Friday, June 4

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today announced that on Friday, June 4, 2010, it will begin trading new Weekly options on four exchange traded funds (ETFs) - Standard and Poor's Depositary Receipts (SPY), Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQQ), DIAMONDS Trust, Series 1 (DIA), and iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM).

Weekly options, first introduced by CBOE in October 2005, are one-week options as opposed to traditional options that have a life of months or years before expiration. New series for Weekly options are listed each Friday and expire the following Friday except that no Weeklys will be listed that would expire during the expiration week for standard options (the third Friday of each month).

Except for time to expiration, Weeklys generally have the same contract specifications and offer the same continuous, two-sided quotes as standard options.

Trading volume in Weekly options has grown since CBOE introduced the products.  For SPX Weeklys, the average daily volume (ADV) year to date through May was 16,031 contracts or 2.0 percent of standard SPX ADV.  Average daily volume for OEX Weeklys for the same period totaled 15,489 contracts or 31.0 percent of standard OEX trading. 

For more information on Weekly options, see www.cboe.com/weeklys.