The American Stock Exchange® (Amex®) Announces Details Of The Fourth Phase Of Its Decimalization Plan

The American Stock Exchange has announced the details of its plan for the next phase of the industry-wide conversion to decimal pricing. On Jan. 29, 2001, the Amex will convert all its remaining listed equities and equity products to decimals. These include all common stocks, preferred stocks, rights, equity notes, HOLDRSSM and warrants, as well as all:

• Broad-Based Indexes (i.e., Diamonds; iSharesTM; SPDRSTM; MidCaps, Large Cap, Small Cap, and streetTRACKSSM)
• Sector Indexes (i.e., iShareTM Sector Funds; Select Sector SPDR® and streetTRACKSSM Sector Funds)
• International Indexes (i.e., iSharesTM; MSCI Index Funds and iSharesTM S&P Index Funds)
• ndex Notes (i.e., "MITTS"; "TIERS"; "BASES"; "SUNS" and "SPINs")
• Trust Preferred Securities (i.e., "TOPrS")

The Amex announced that it would begin decimal pricing on all options classes with listed underlying equity and equity products on January 29, 2001, as well. Options classes on Nasdaq underlying issues will not be converted to decimals during this phase. Options classes on Nasdaq underlying issues will continue to trade in fractions and will be converted to decimal pricing when the Nasdaq converts its issues to decimals later in 2001.

The first phase of the conversion to decimals began on Aug. 28, with the Amex trading six of its listed equities and two option classes in decimals. Full industry conversion to decimals is expected no later than April of next year.

The American Stock Exchange®, a subsidiary of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD®), is the only primary exchange that offers trading across a full range of equities, Index SharesSM, including structured products and HOLDRSSM, and options. In addition to its role as a national equities market, the Amex is the leader in Index Share listings (DIAMONDS®,FORTUNE 500®Index Tracking Stock, FORTUNE e-50TMIndex Tracking Stock, iSharesSM , MidCap SPDRs™, Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking StockSM, Select Sector SPDRs®, and SPDRs® and streetTRACKSSM) and is the second-largest options exchange in the U.S., trading options on broad-based and sector indexes as well as domestic and foreign stocks. For more information, visit www.amex.com.