The International Securities Exchange (NYSE:ISE) today reported that average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts for February 2007 increased 14.2% to 2.7 million contracts as compared to 2.4 million contracts during the same period in 2006. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 14.2% to 51.1 million contracts from 44.8 million contracts in the same year-ago period.
On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of equity and index options increased 8.4% to 2.7 million contracts traded as compared to 2.5 million contracts traded in the prior year. Total year-to-date equity and index volume through February 2007 increased 8.4% to 106.9 million contracts from 98.6 million contracts in the same period last year.
Equity and Index Options Volume Statistics
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Current Month Year-to-Date
(000s) Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change
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ISE
Average
Daily
Volume 2,689.9 2,356.3 14.2% 2,740.2 2,528.5 8.4%
ISE Total
Volume 51,109.0 44,770.2 14.2% 106,867.9 98,612.8 8.4%
Industry
Average
Daily
Volume 9,644.1 7,525.1 28.2% 9,764.3 8,234.8 18.6%
Market
Share 27.9% 31.3% (3.4) pts 28.1% 30.7% (2.6) pts
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Market
Share:
Customer 29.5% 32.3% (2.8) pts 29.7% 32.3% (2.6) pts
Market
Share:
Firm 24.1% 27.2% (3.1) pts 23.9% 25.4% (1.5) pts
Market
Share:
Market
Maker 27.8% 31.6% (3.8) pts 28.2% 30.7% (2.5) pts
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Equity Options Volume Statistics
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Current Month Year-to-Date
(000s) Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change
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ISE
Average
Daily
Volume 2,642.3 2,323.8 13.7% 2,697.4 2,500.5 7.9%
ISE Total
Volume 50,204.0 41,828.3 20.0% 105,198.2 95,020.0 10.7%
Industry
Average
Daily
Volume 8,768.0 6,890.5 27.2% 8,938.6 7,600.5 17.6%
Market
Share 30.1% 33.7% (3.6) pts 30.2% 32.9% (2.7) pts
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Market
Share:
Customer 32.0% 34.5% (2.5) pts 31.9% 34.3% (2.4) pts
Market
Share:
Firm 26.2% 30.3% (4.1) pts 25.8% 28.1% (2.3) pts
Market
Share:
Market
Maker 29.9% 34.0% (4.1) pts 30.2% 32.9% (2.7) pts
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Index Options Volume Statistics
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Current Month Year-to-Date
(000s) Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change Feb-07 Feb-06 % Change
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ISE
Average
Daily
Volume 47.6 27.0 76.4% 42.8 29.9 43.1%
ISE Total
Volume 905.0 486.1 86.2% 1,669.8 1,137.0 46.9%
Industry
Average
Daily
Volume 876.1 620.3 41.2% 825.7 646.2 27.8%
Market
Share 5.4% 4.4% 1.0 pt 5.2% 4.6% 0.6 pts
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Dividend Trade Activity
Our market share statistics continue to be negatively impacted by trading activity related to dividend trades among certain options market makers. These trades temporarily inflate and distort trading volume and market share when transacted. If the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded from the data, our market share of equity options for the month of February would increase to 31.5% from 30.1%, an increase of 1.4 market share points.
On a year-to-date basis, our market share would increase to 31.9% from 30.2%, an increase of 1.7 market share points, if the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded. The exclusion of dividend trades from total industry volume data presents a more relevant measure of the relative trends in our business.
Monthly Highlights
-- ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in February.
-- On February 5, 2007, ISE announced that Lava Trading Inc. added the ISE Stock Exchange as an equity execution destination. Lava joins other trading solutions providers connected to the ISE Stock Exchange, including InstaQuote, MIXIT, Neovest, Portware, Orc Software, and Order Execution Services.
-- On February 12, 2007, ISE completed the initial rollout of its Second Market for options. Approximately 700 options classes now trade in the Second Market. ISE also announced the addition of three Second Market Competitive Market Makers (CMMs(R)): Lehman Brothers Inc., DC Trading Partners LLC and Monadnock Capital Management, LP. The total number of Second Market CMMs is now thirteen.
-- On February 13, 2007, ISE completed the rollout of its fully-displayed stock market for the ISE Stock Exchange. Traders can now access approximately 6,000 National Market System (NMS) securities through both ISE's non-displayed liquidity pool, MidPoint Match(TM) and its displayed market.
-- On February 21, 2007, ISE launched an enhanced version of ISEE Select(TM), its customized sentiment data offering. New features include the ability to chart intraday and historical sentiment values as well as the capability to download the historical values for further analysis. ISE also announced that OptionsDevil, Schaeffer's Investment Research, SentimenTrader, and Terra Nova Financial, LLC joined the ISEE Select marketing alliance.
-- On February 26, 2007, ISE announced that it entered into an agreement with First Trust Advisors L.P. to create and list Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) on three proprietary ISE indexes. First Trust plans to develop ETFs based on the ISE Water Index (underlying index ticker: HHO), ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index (underlying index ticker: FUM), and ISE ChIndia Index (underlying index ticker: to be determined).
-- On February 27, 2007, ISE set a new record daily trading volume of 5,531,875 equity and index options contracts. Trading volume in the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQQ) also reached a new high of 1,032,296 contracts.
-- ISE traded more volume than any other options exchange in 918 of 1,691 issues in its listings.
