Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:

ISE Reports Monthly Volume For July 2006 - Average Daily Volume Of 2.3 Million Contracts, Up 32.5% From July 2005

Date 01/08/2006

The International Securities Exchange (NYSE:ISE) today reported that average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts for July 2006 increased 32.5% to 2.3 million contracts as compared to 1.7 million contracts during the same period in 2005. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 32.5% to 45.9 million contracts from 34.6 million contracts in the same year-ago period.

On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of equity and index options increased 41.7% to 2.4 million contracts traded as compared to 1.7 million contracts traded in the prior year. Total equity and index volume through July 2006 increased 41.7% to 345.4 million contracts from 243.8 million contracts in the same period last year.

Our average daily trading volume continues 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 July would increase to 32.6% from 32.4%, an increase of 0.2 market share points. On a year-to-date basis, our market share would increase to 33.4% from 32.3%, an increase of 1.1 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.

Equity and Index Options Volume Statistics

         Current                       Year-to-
           Month                          Date
(000s)    Jul-06    Jul-05   % Change    Jul-06     Jul-05   % Change
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------
ISE
 Average
 Daily
 Volume   2,295.0   1,732.3      32.5%   2,382.2    1,681.1      41.7%
ISE Total
 Volume  45,900.0  34,645.3      32.5% 345,420.3  243,754.7      41.7%
Industry
 Average
 Daily
 Volume   7,730.1   5,643.2      37.0%   8,015.1    5,577.0      43.7%
Market
 Share       29.7%     30.7% (1.0) pts      29.7%      30.1% (0.4) pts
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------
Market
 Share:
 Customer    28.9%     30.2% (1.3) pts      30.4%      30.2%   0.2 pts
Market
 Share:
 Firm        26.7%     23.5%   3.2 pts      25.8%      21.4%   4.4 pts
Market
 Share:
 Market
 Maker       31.3%     33.1% (1.8) pts      30.3%      32.4% (2.1) pts
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------

Equity Options Volume Statistics

          Current                      Year-to-
            Month                         Date
(000s)     Jul-06   Jul-05   % Change    Jul-06     Jul-05   % Change
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------
ISE
 Average
 Daily
 Volume    2,263.2  1,708.9      32.4%   2,350.3    1,667.5      40.9%
ISE Total
 Volume   45,263.2 34,178.3      32.4% 340,789.8  241,784.5      40.9%
Industry
 Average
 Daily
 Volume    6,979.2  5,155.2      35.4%   7,283.3    5,081.4      43.3%
Market
 Share        32.4%    33.2% (0.8) pts      32.3%      32.8% (0.5) pts
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------
Market
 Share:
 Customer     31.4%    32.2% (0.8) pts      32.7%      32.5%   0.2 pts
Market
 Share:
 Firm         29.7%    26.4%   3.3 pts      28.8%      24.1%   4.7 pts
Market
 Share:
 Market
 Maker        34.3%    35.8% (1.5) pts      32.9%      35.4% (2.5) pts
--------- -------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------

Index Options Volume Statistics

            Current                       Year-to-
              Month                         Date
(000s)       Jul-06    Jul-05   % Change   Jul-06    Jul-05  % Change
----------- --------- --------- --------- -------- --------- ---------
ISE Average
 Daily
 Volume         31.8      23.3      36.4%    31.9      13.6     135.0%
ISE Total
 Volume        636.8     467.0      36.4% 4,630.5   1,970.2     135.0%
Industry
 Average
 Daily
 Volume        750.9     488.0      53.9%   731.8     495.6      47.7%
Market
 Share           4.2%      4.8% (0.6) pts     4.4%      2.7%   1.7 pts
----------- --------- --------- --------- -------- --------- ---------
    Monthly Highlights

    --  ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in July.

    --  On July 5, 2006, ISE announced the introduction of a Second
        Market that will list approximately 850 additional equity
        options beginning in the third quarter of 2006, pending SEC
        approval. The listing of these equity options classes will
        double the total number of options classes traded at ISE.

    --  On July 10, 2006, ISE received SEC approval to launch its new
        Quarterly options product. Quarterly options expire at the end
        of a calendar quarter. For each options class, ISE offers five
        expiration dates: four front calendar quarters and the fourth
        quarter from the following year. The ISE now offers Quarterly
        Options expiring on the last trading days in September 2006,
        December 2006, March 2007, June 2007, and December 2007.

    --  On July 19, 2006, ISE announced that it rolled out PrecISE
        Trade(TM), its new front-end trading application for
        broker-dealers to access ISE's markets. PrecISE offers users a
        lighter application with reduced bandwidth requirements and a
        faster, flexible trading interface that provides greater
        capacity to support future enhancements.

    --  On July 24, 2006, ISE announced that Nomura Securities
        International, Inc., Van der Moolen, and a subsidiary of
        E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation joined previously announced
        strategic partners Bear Stearns, Citadel Derivatives Group,
        Deutsche Bank, Interactive Brokers Group LLC, JPMorgan, Knight
        Capital Group, Inc., and Sun Trading LLC as joint owners of
        the new ISE Stock Exchange LLC.

    --  ISE traded more volume than any other options exchange in 660
        of 924 issues in its listings.