Options Industry Sets New Daily Volume Record

Chicago—January 20, 2006

The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced that a new daily trading volume record was set yesterday, January 19, 2006, when 11,523,913 contracts changed hands, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous record of 11,254,044 set on April 15, 2005.

Thursday’s record volume comes on the heels of another record volume year - the eighth in the last nine years - for the options industry. More than 1.5 billion contracts were traded in 2005. Average daily trading volume in 2005 was 5,969,490 contracts, while average daily volume so far in January is 8,821,251 contracts

January trading has started strong with three of the top five trading volume days occurring this month.

Equity options trading also set a new record yesterday with 10,491,603 contracts changing hands, a 3.9 percent increase over the previous record of 10,097,235 set on April 15, 2005.

About OIC

OIC is a non-profit association funded by the U.S. options exchanges and The Options Clearing Corporation. OIC's free resources include: The Investor Services call center at 1-888-OPTIONS, an educational Web site at www.888options.com, evening seminars throughout the continental United States and Canada, educational literature and software.

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