Boston Options Exchange Sets Multiple Records; Trading Volume Tops 100,000 and Price Improvement Saves Customers Nearly $1 Million.

BOSTON -- The Boston Options Exchange (BOX), which launched in February, has set multiple records for volume and price improvement (PIP) trades over the last two weeks. Three of the past six trading sessions have set new BOX records for daily trading volume, including the first session topping 100,000 contacts: June 18 (79,928), June 21 (84,997) and June 23 (111,897).

"BOX's records are especially significant with it being such a recent entrant to the market," said Kenneth Leibler, Chairman of BOX. "BOX's innovative market model has saved nearly $1 million for customers from our price improvement mechanism (PIP) while delivering speed, efficiency and lower trading costs for the industry."

PIP has been delivering over $2 per contract in improved returns to investors since its launch. On June 18, BOX executed the largest PIP trade with 5,000 contracts on a September QQQ Put with an improvement of $2.00 per contract over the prevailing national best offer - for a total savings to the customer of $10,000. Also, on June 18, BOX had the most "PIPed" contracts in a single session at 17,125.

"BOX quickly ramped up with over 230 options classes being rolled out with the first three months," said Will Easley, managing director of BOX. "Our launch of QQQs on June 14, has delivered market share as high as 5% and BOX recently hit 12% market share on the actively traded Microsoft (MSFT)."

About BOX:

The BOX model represents a significant innovation in options trading with a market structure that operates with unprecedented low-costs that eliminate barriers to trading, an electronic auction feature that offers customers price improvement, and a model that functions without a trading floor.

The Boston Options Exchange Group LLC (BOX) was established in February 2002 by Boston Stock Exchange, Inc. (BSE), Bourse de Montreal, Inc., and Interactive Brokers Group LLC. Four additional investors - Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and UBS - subsequently joined as BOX partners. BOX is an all-electronic equity derivatives market and was created as an alternative to the existing market models. BOX launched trading in February 2004. For more information, see BOX website: www.bostonoptions.com. Since BOX is an all-electronic options exchange it provides great diversification for the Boston Stock Exchange's core business of equity trading.