CME E-mini Equity Index Options Total Volume Exceeds 4 Million

CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange, today reported that year-to-date trading volume in its CME(R) E-mini(R) equity index options exceeded four million at 4,006,366 contracts as of yesterday. This represents a 727 percent increase over the total of 487,727 CME E-mini equity index options traded in 2004.

CME offers options on three CME E-mini futures, CME E-mini S&P 500(R) futures, CME E-mini Russell 2000(R) and CME E-mini NASDAQ-100(R) futures contracts. As of Nov. 22, 2005, year-to-date volume for each contract was:

CME E-mini S&P 500 3,786,905 options
CME E-mini Russell 2000 132,850 options
CME E-mini NASDAQ-100 86,611 options

On Oct. 5, CME E-mini S&P 500 options reached a new one-day volume record with 107,985 contracts traded. On Oct. 20, options on CME E-mini NASDAQ-100 futures, which launched Nov. 21, 2004, achieved a daily volume record of 3,537 contracts traded. Also, on Oct. 9, CME added mass quoting capabilities and enhanced market maker protections for CME equity options traded on the CME(R) Globex(R) electronic trading platform. All CME E-mini equity options trade exclusively on this platform.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. ( http://www.cme.com ) is the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.4 billion per day in settlement payments in the first three quarters of 2005 and managed $43.8 billion in collateral deposits at September 30, 2005, including $3.8 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000(R) Index.