CBOE Volume Increases 15% In February - CBOE Futures Exchange Volume Up 80%, Sets New Monthly Trading Record

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced today that February volume increased 15% over February 2004 volume, climbing to a total of 31,553,430 contracts traded. Index options volume at CBOE continued to post impressive growth, as February volume, driven by strong activity in several benchmark indexes, rose 33% over February 2004 volume to 11,582,971 contracts.

Exchange Volume, February 2005:
Total Volume
31,553,430 contracts
+15% vs. year-ago (Feb 04)
-9% vs. previous month (Jan 05)

Average Daily Volume 1,660,707 contracts
+15% vs. year-ago (Feb 04)

Open Interest
129,181,576 contracts
+11% vs. year-ago (Feb 04)
+11% vs. previous month (Jan 05)

Year-To-Date Volume
66,437,189 contracts
+8% vs. YTD 2004

February highlights at CBOE included:

Volume in index options totaled 11.6 million contracts, an increase of 33% over year-ago levels. Volume in options on several benchmark indexes posted strong gains at CBOE in February, among them: Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX), +65%; S&P 500 Index (SPX), +56%; Russell 2000 Index (RUT), +52%; S&P 100 (OEX), +23%; and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJX), +22%.
Volume in stock option classes rose 6% over 2004 as 20 million contracts were traded. The top five stock option classes at CBOE during February were: Pfizer, Inc. (PFE), Google, Inc. (GOOG), Altria Group, Inc. (MO), Hewlett Packard Co. (HPQ), Apple Computer, Inc. (AAPL).

At CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE), total volume in February surged 80% from the previous month to 15,157 contracts traded, with an average daily volume of 797 contracts. Both volume marks are new records for the nearly one-year old exchange. Open interest stood at 10,402 contracts at the end of February, up 2% from the previous month.
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/.