Total trade volume for the month finished at 5,091,894, an increase of 134 percent over August 1999, while share volume reached 2,234,802,721, up 105 percent from last August. Year to date, trade volume is up 144 percent and share volume is up 108 percent as compared to the same period in 1999.
Seat prices achieved a new high in August with a record sale of $350,000 on August 31, more than a 43 percent increase from the same time last year when seat prices reached $244,000.
"Our volume growth and rising seat prices demonstrate that the CHX is a strong competitor in the U.S. equities market," said CHX President and CEO Bob Forney.
The CHX's Over-the-Counter (OTC) program, which currently trades more than 900 Nasdaq issues, continued to prosper in August. The Exchange's Nasdaq trade volume ended at 2,780,756, up nearly 400 percent over August 1999, while share volume finished at 977,012,334, an increase of 344 percent from the same time last year. The CHX is the only floor-based auction market in the country that trades Nasdaq issues.
During August, share volume for extended hours trading from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time totaled 28,626,931.
In regard to the CHX's recent conversion to decimalization, Forney commented, "Our launch of the decimal pilot program on August 28 went off without a hitch, and we are up and running with all systems functioning normally. Firms that send their orders to the CHX can feel confident that the interests of their customers (the investing public) are being protected.
"Additionally, we have successfully increased our capacity to be able to process 1.4 million trades per day. We are well on our way to be able to process two million trades daily by April 2001."
The Chicago Stock Exchange was founded May 15, 1882 and is the second most active stock exchange in terms of share and trade volume. The CHX is also the fastest-growing exchange providing the strongest force for competition to all U.S. markets. The CHX trades more than 4,500 NYSE, Amex, Nasdaq and CHX-exclusive issues, more than any other stock exchange in the world.
