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NYSE Arca Options To Begin Penny Quoting Pilot In 2007 - NYSE Arca Is The First Exchange To File For The Pilot

Date 12/10/2006

NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) today announced that it has filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to begin a six-month pilot program quoting options issues listed for trading on the NYSE Arca Options platform in $0.01 increments as opposed to the current industry standard $0.05 for option series quoted under $3.00.  Additionally, current pricing increments for options quoted at $3.00 per contract or greater is $0.10, which under the proposed plan would be reduced to $0.05 for issues in the pilot program.

“NYSE Arca applauds the SEC’s introduction of options penny quoting in a measured process as a means of studying its effects on options trading and determining the benefits to the investing public,” said Jon Werts, NYSE Group Vice President.   “Consistent with our commitment to providing the public with the best, most robust menu of products and services, we have filed a comprehensive plan to analyze penny quoting and mitigate quote traffic.”

Importantly, the proposed quote mitigation plan willsignificantly reduce overall quote traffic in all of NYSE Arca’s options issues, not just those selected for the pilot program.  As described in more detail in the filing, the Exchange proposes to disseminate quotes only in “active” options series.

The proposed penny pilot will begin Jan. 26, 2007 with the following 13 issues: 

QQQQ             Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock
IWM                 iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund
SMH                Semiconductor Holdrs Trust
GE                   General Electric Company
AMD                Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
MSFT               Microsoft Corporation
INTC                Intel Corporation
CAT                Caterpillar Inc.
WFMI               Whole Foods Market, Inc.
TXN                Texas Instruments Incorporated
GLG                Glamis Gold Ltd.
FLEX               Flextronics International Ltd.
SUNW             Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For more information please visit http://www.nyse.com/options .