CBOT Average Daily Volume Increases 9 Percent Over February 2005 - Exchange Volume Reaches All-Time High

Date 01/03/2006

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT^®) today announced February 2006 average daily volume (ADV) increased 9 percent to 3,528,676 contracts, compared with 3,231,548 contracts in February 2005. In addition, Exchange volume for February climbed to its highest monthly total ever, reaching a record 67,044,843 contracts.

Also hitting an all-time high in February was volume on the CBOT’s electronic trading platform with 44,342,095 contracts traded. CBOT electronic ADV reached 2,333,794 contracts, increasing 17 percent from February 2005 and representing 66 percent of total Exchange volume.

Each of the Exchange’s product groups, including its Agricultural, Interest Rate, Metals and Equities experienced volume growth in February, including an increase of more than 500 percent in ADV within the CBOT Precious Metals complex compared with February 2005. ADV in the Exchange’s Agricultural complex increased by 9 percent over February 2005 to 517,120 contracts. Further, open interest on CBOT Corn futures reached record levels, believed to be driven in part by market participants increasingly viewing commodities as an independent asset class.

Key February Highlights

Precious Metals

As the CBOT prepares for the launch of its new Gold options contract on Friday, March 3, the Exchange’s existing Metals complex continued to experience significant growth. ADV and open interest in Metals futures increased in February to 20,716 contracts and 22,797 contracts, respectively.

Gold futures, which include both Full- (100 oz.) and mini-sized (33.2 oz.) contracts, have been especially successful. The CBOT Gold futures complex accounted for approximately 23 percent of listed Gold futures traded in North America based on February 2006 volumes.

ADV for CBOT Full-sized Gold futures climbed to 12,836 contracts in February 2006 – a 1,059 percent increase over the prior year.
The mini-sized Gold futures contract also experienced strong ADV – 5,161 contracts and an increase of 429 percent over February 2005.
In the CBOT Silver futures complex, which includes Full- (5,000 oz.) and mini-sized (1,000 oz.) contracts, ADV increased in February 2006 compared with February 2005. ADV for the Exchange’s Full-sized Silver futures advanced to 1,335 contracts, up 400 percent over February 2005, while mini-sized Silver futures rose to 1,384 contracts, an increase of 84 percent from last year.

Two-Year Treasury Note Futures and Options

Solid performance in the CBOT Financial complex included record Financial futures ADV reaching nearly 2.5 million contracts – an increase of 9 percent over the prior year. Other ADV records included 169,645 contracts in Two-Year Treasury Note futures, 4,053 contracts in Two-Year Treasury Note options, 1,119,088 contracts in Ten-Year Treasury Note futures, and 639,038 contracts in Five-Year Treasury Note futures. Meanwhile, ADV for CBOT Financial options reached 449,445 contracts, 5 percent better than February 2005. Electronic trading of Financial options represented 12 percent of total Financial options traded in February.

CBOT Total Monthly Volume Records

Total Exchange volume – new record: 67,044,843 contracts; prior record 66,543,441 contracts set March 2005.Two-Year Treasury Note futures - new record: 3,223,253 contracts; prior record 2,451,514 contracts set November 2005.
Two-Year Treasury Note options – new record: 77,015 contracts; prior record 42,075 contracts set January 2006.
30-Day Fed Fund options – new record: 1,149,385 contracts; prior record 948,697 contracts set September 2005.
Corn futures – new record: 3,599,089 contracts; prior record 3,446,087 contracts set June 2005.
Wheat futures - new record: 1,421,258 contracts; prior record 1,164,543 contracts set November 2005.

CBOT Monthly Electronic Volume Records

Total Electronic Volume – new record: 44,342,095 contracts; prior record 42,521,891 contracts set May 2005.
Two-Year Treasury Note futures – new record: 2,767,479 contracts; prior record 2,074,411 contracts set November 2005.
30-Year Treasury Bond futures - new record: 7,547,582 contracts; prior record 7,454,506 contracts set February 2005.
5,000 oz. Silver futures – new record: 25,360 contracts; prior record 22,520 contracts set January 2006.
Wheat futures – new record: 53,737 contracts; prior record 26,466 contracts set June 2005.
Corn futures – new record: 149,613 contracts; prior record 149,127 contracts set June 2005.
Soybean Oil futures - new record: 6,914 contracts; prior record 6,612 contracts set January 2006.

CBOT Electronic Daily Volume Records Set

Two-Year Treasury Note futures – new record: 320,001 contracts set on February 24, 2006; prior record 289,963 contracts set on November 29, 2005.
30-Year Treasury Bond futures – new record: 717,685 contracts set on February 28, 2006; prior record 717,466 contracts set on February 28, 2006.
5,000 oz. Silver futures – new record: 2,325 contracts set on February 13, 2006; prior record 2,124 contracts set on February 07, 2006.
Wheat futures – new record: 6,298 contracts set on February 10, 2006; prior record 4,478 contracts set on February 03, 2006.

CBOT’s Average Rate per Contract

The following chart depicts the Exchange’s January 2006 three-month rolling average rate per contract (in dollars), and the two proceeding three-month period average rates per contract.

Average rate per contract represents total exchange and clearing revenue divided by total reported trading volume. Average rates per contract can be affected by exchange and clearing fee price levels, and the customer, product, venue and transaction mix.
	THREE-MONTH PERIOD ENDING
	January 31, 2006	December 31, 2005	November 30, 2005
PRODUCT:
Interest Rate	0.532	0.537	0.513
Agriculture	0.664	0.666	0.646
Market Indices	0.789	0.789	0.728
Metals, Energy & Other	1.520	1.559	1.506
Overall average rate per contract	0.566	0.570	0.541
VENUE:
Open-Auction	0.510	0.507	0.491
Electronic	0.504	0.506	0.471
Off-Exchange	2.345	2.299	2.153
Overall average rate per contract	0.566	0.570	0.541

For more information on the CBOT, to view the Exchange’s daily and monthly volume and open interest records, and details on ADV and volume for January 2006, visit www.cbot.com.

Forward Looking Statements

In this release, our use of the words “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or other comparable terminology is intended to identify forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in filings made by CBOT Holdings, Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be obtained at its website at www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to

update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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