The Options Industry Council Announces June Options Trading Increased 50% Over Same Period Last Year

Chicago—July 5, 2006

The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that total options trading volume in June reached 170,749,224 contracts, a 49.5 percent increase over the year-ago level of 114,175,409 contracts.

Total options volume for the first half of 2006 is 44.8 percent higher than it was in the first half of last year - a record-setting year when more than 1.5 billion contracts traded.

Equity options volume increased 46.3 percent over June 2005 and year-to-date equity options volume is up 44.6 percent over the same point in 2005.

The rate of trading volume growth has increased every month this year, beginning with a 51.7 percent rise over the previous January through June’s 49.5 percent increase. On June 29, the year-to-date total number of options contracts traded surpassed 1 billion contracts.

The Options Clearing Corporation reported a new open interest record was set on June 16 with 225,518,667 total contracts. Equity options and total options open interest set new month-end records in June at 187,924,706 contracts and 203,054,344 contracts, respectively. Open interest, the total number of options contracts not yet exercised or allowed to expire, is seen as an indication of longer-term investing in these instruments.

Additional volume statistics reported by The OCC include:

• Average daily equity options volume: 7,331,916 (up 56 percent from June 2005)
• Average daily total options volume: 8,061,235 (up 55 percent from June 2005)

June Highlights

Total options volume added three new top 10 record days in June when 12,835,641 contracts traded on June 8, 11,744,258 contracts traded on June 15, and 11,642,756 contracts traded on June 13, becoming - respectively - the fourth, seventh and ninth-highest daily volume totals ever. Equity options volume reached 11,214,018 on June 8, and 10,097,498 contracts on June 15, ranking them - respectively - as the fifth and tenth highest equity volume days ever.

About OIC

OIC is a non-profit association funded by the American Stock Exchange, Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NYSE Arca, Philadelphia Stock Exchange and The Options Clearing Corporation. OIC's resources include: The Options Industry Services Options Help Desk at 1-888-OPTIONS, an educational Web site at www.888options.com, evening seminars throughout the continental United States and Canada, and educational literature and software.

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