NYBOT Announces Revised NYSE Composite Index® Contract

Starting today, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Composite Index is undergoing some significant changes designed to transform it into a fully investable instrument. The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT®), as the home of the NYSE Composite Index futures and options markets, is structuring a transition from the "Old" NYSE Composite to the "Revised" NYSE Composite that will allow market users to navigate the shift effectively and efficiently.

The NYBOT Index markets will continue to offer three futures contracts (small, regular and large) and options on the regular, all based on the old Index (YX), through September of 2003. No contracts for the old Index will be listed beyond September. The contracts based on the revised Index will replace the contracts for the old Index after the expiration of the September 2003 old Index contracts. The new NYSE contracts should be available for trading in mid-February.

Specifications for futures and options contracts based on the revised Index (YU) will be introduced by NYBOT in the weeks ahead to allow those who trade the NYSE Composite to move more easily into the revised Index.

The New York Stock Exchange will continue to provide the data for the old Index during the transition period, and will begin to provide data for the revised Index on January 9, 2003, with a base number of 5,000 (the old Index value was calculated at 495.71 as of January 6, 2003).

The NYBOT will continue to use the symbol YX for both the futures contracts on the old NYSE Index and the old NYSE Index value itself. NYBOT will use the symbol YU to designate the revised NYSE Index.

Beginning January 9th, 2003, the New York Stock Exchange, however, will list the revised Index under the symbol NYA (previously used for the old Index) and will use the new symbol NYZ to designate the old Index.

Market participants who track the NYSE Index using price vendors should contact their vendors directly to determine the symbol assigned by the vendor for the Old and the Revised Index.

Current traders of the Index or those who are considering the Index as a means to trade the broad equities market should visit the NYSE website (www.nyse.com) to learn more about the specific changes to the Index. The NYBOT will also provide more details of the change in the near future on its website www.nybot.com as the transition unfolds.

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) is the parent company of the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, Inc. (CSCE) and the New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE). Through its two exchanges and their subsidiaries and divisions, NYBOT offers an expanding range of agricultural, currency and index products.