The Philadelphia Stock Exchange To Begin Trading Options On iShares Lehman US Treasury Exchange Traded Funds “ Trading To Begin On Friday, April 15”

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) announced today that it will begin trading options on iShares Lehman US Treasury Exchange Traded Funds (TLT, IEF, SHY, AGG and TIP) on Friday, April 15. Options on TLT, IEF, and SHY, AGG and TIP will trade on PHLX XL, the Exchange’s electronic trading platform, along with 1,650 other equity options.

"Interest rate volatility has been a constant headline since the Federal Reserve began raising rate short term interest rates. With the bond market having experienced a sharp sell off since mid-February, PHLX wanted to bring interest rate trading tools to holders of securities accounts.” said PHLX Vice President of New Products, Daniel Carrigan. “Individual investors or institutional traders can tailor-make hedging strategies to fit the term duration of their Treasury portfolios by using options on iShares Lehman ETFs in their option-approved stock trading accounts. Conversely, these products can be used to create synthetic long Treasury portfolios,” Carrigan added.

Lehman iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (SHY), Lehman iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund (IEF), and Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) have been allocated to Susquehanna Investment Group.

Lehman iShares Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG) and Lehman iShares TIPS Bond Fund (TIP) have been allocated to LaBranche Structured Products LLC.