CBOE Stock Exchange Celebrates First Year Of Operation - Exchange Experienced Steady Growth In Volume And Market Participation

CBSX, the CBOE Stock Exchange, LLC, a subsidiary of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), announced today that the exchange has successfully completed its first year of operation.

During its first twelve months, CBSX added more than 3,100 securities to its product offerings. CBSX's volume and market share grew consistently during the year.By the end of December 2007, CBSX total volume topped more than one billion shares traded. Average daily volume has built steadily over the first year; and on Friday, February 29, 2008, over 20 million shares were traded at CBSX.Also in February, market data revenue from Tape C grew by 43%.

"In our first year, CBSX successfully introduced a marketplace that reduced CBOE options traders' stock execution costs.We were able to offer these traders direct connectivity to CBSX, enhanced functionality, and value-added, lower cost services," said David Harris, CBSX's Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to continued successes at CBSX and will focus on our goal to offer a stock market where options hedging is faster, cheaper and better."

New for 2008, CBSX launched an automated buy-write feature in February. This product allows CBOE and CBSX order flow sending firms to send a "stock-option package" electronically, facilitating faster and more efficient executions. The automated buy-writes offer the benefits of price improvement on the options side, combined with immediate printing on the stock side -- all available at a lower cost than what customers might currently pay now at other exchanges. Through this new feature, CBOE Market Makers that utilize CBSX for hedging will have more of an advantage in every options trade they conduct, without sacrificing the price or speed they are accustomed to receiving.