Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index: 97,786.06 +667.06

ISE Reports Record Monthly Volume For January 2006 - Average Daily Volume Record Of 2.7 Million Contracts, 50% Increase Vs. January 2005

Date 01/02/2006

The International Securities Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ISE) today reported that average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts for January 2006 increased 49.5% to 2.7 million contracts as compared to 1.8 million contracts during the same period in 2004. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 49.5% to 53.8 million contracts from 36.0 million contracts in the same year-ago period.

As was the case in prior months, we witnessed trading activity among options market makers on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Pacific Exchange related to dividend trades whereby traders continued to profit at the expense of investors who failed to exercise their call options immediately prior to a stock going ex-dividend. If the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded from the monthly data, our market share of equity options would have increased from 32.3% to 34.5%, an increase of 2.2 market share points.

Equity and Index Options Volume Statistics
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                                                  Current Month
(000s)                                      Jan-06   Jan-05   % Change
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ISE Average Daily Volume                   2,692.1  1,801.0     49.5%
ISE Total Volume                          53,842.6 36,019.2     49.5%
Industry Average Daily Volume              8,909.0  5,872.0     51.7%
Market Share                                  30.2%    30.7% (0.5) pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ISE Market Share:  Customer                   32.2%    30.8%  1.4 pts
ISE Market Share:  Firm                       23.9%    19.2%  4.7 pts
ISE Market Share:  Market Maker               30.1%    33.5% (3.4) pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Equity Options Volume Statistics
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                                                  Current Month
(000s)                                      Jan-06   Jan-05   % Change
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ISE Average Daily Volume                   2,659.6  1,800.5     47.7%
ISE Total Volume                          53,191.8 36,010.9     47.7%
Industry Average Daily Volume              8,239.6  5,412.9     52.2%
Market Share                                  32.3%    33.3% (1.0) pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ISE Market Share:  Customer                   34.1%    33.1%  1.0 pts
ISE Market Share:  Firm                       26.3%    21.5%  4.8 pts
ISE Market Share:  Market Maker               32.2%    36.4% (4.2) pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Index Options Volume Statistics
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                                                    Current Month
(000s)                                      Jan-06   Jan-05   % Change
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ISE Average Daily Volume                      32.5      0.4      N/M
ISE Total Volume                             650.7      8.3      N/M
Industry Average Daily Volume                669.5    459.1     45.8%
Market Share                                   4.9%     0.1%  4.8 pts
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Monthly Highlights

    --  ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in January.

    --  ISE established a new monthly average daily volume trading
        record of 2.7 million contracts.

    --  ISE established a new weekly average daily volume trading
        record of 3.5 million contracts during the week of January 16,
        2006.

    --  On January 20, 2006 ISE set a record for daily trading volume
        of 4,580,678 equity and index contracts surpassing the
        previous record of 3,385,677 contracts set this month on
        January 18, 2006.

    --  On January 5, 2006 ISE announced that it launched the ISE-B&S
        Water Index, a new sector index option and benchmark for this
        emerging industry.

    --  On January 10, 2006 ISE announced that it launched two new
        specialized sector index options, the ISE-CCM Alternative
        Energy Index and the ISE-CCM Nanotechnology Index.

    --  On January 20, 2006 ISE announced that it initiated trading of
        the iShares(R) MSCI(R) Japan Fund and the iShares(R) Dow
        Jones(R) U.S. Real Estate Index Fund.

    --  On January 24, 2006 ISE announced the launch of a historical
        market data offering in response to member and investor
        requests for information and market data to help improve
        trading efficiency.

    --  ISE traded more volume in 600 of 829 issues in its listings
        than any other options exchange.

    ISE Background

The International Securities Exchange, the world's largest equity options exchange, was founded on the principle that technology fosters and infuses new efficiencies and operational innovations into securities trading. After developing an innovative market structure that integrated auction market principles into an advanced screen-based trading system, ISE launched the first fully electronic US options exchange in May 2000. ISE continually enhances its trading systems to provide investors with the best marketplace to execute their options orders.

For more information about ISE, its products and its technology, visit www.iseoptions.com.

This press release contains "forward looking statements." These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward looking statements. We undertake no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to update these statements. Factors that could affect our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements and cause them to materially differ from those contained in the forward looking statements can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our registration statements on Form S-1, current reports on Form 8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as amended.