ISE Lists Options On The Morgan Stanley Technology Index Exchange Continues Expansion Into Index Options Market

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) said today that options on the Morgan Stanley Technology Index (MSH) were listed for trading in bin 7 on a March expiration cycle with position and exercise limits of 31,500 contracts. Timber Hill LLC, a unit of Interactive Brokers LLC, is serving as the Primary Market Maker (PMM).

This marks the second index options product listed on ISE. The Morgan Stanley Technology Index is an equal-dollar weighted index that is designed to measure the performance of a cross section of highly-capitalized US companies that are active in nine technology subsectors: computer services, design software, server software, PC software and new media, networking and telecommunications equipment, server hardware, PC hardware and peripherals, specialized systems and semiconductors.

"ISE is committed to building an index options market based on the principles of our equity options market, which are to provide competitive, liquid markets where technology and ease of execution helps insure that investors get to execute orders at the prices displayed. We are pleased to make the Morgan Stanley Technology Index available for trading, and look forward to listing more index products," said Bruce D. Goldberg, ISE's Senior Vice President of Marketing.

ISE listed its first index option, the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 (SML), on October 3, 2003. ISE currently has a 61% share of the market in the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600.