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9   -   August 12, 2004
BOX Completes First Six Months of Trading
Recent Records
Price Improvement*: the First Six Months
BOX Market Share Rises
Connectivity to BOX
New Shareholder in BOX
 
BOX Sets Multiple Records, First
Trading Session Over 100,000 Contracts


BOX, the only options exchange with price improvement for customer orders, has completed its first six months of operation. From its initial launch on February 6, 2004 with options on six classes, BOX now lists options on 248 classes of options, including the QQQs and covering over 75% of OCC equity options volume. Cumulative volume traded for the first six months exceeds 6.8 million contracts. For a list of the classes presently trading on BOX, click here

Growth in classes

Subject to receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, BOX plans to nearly double the number of classes listed for trading by the end of 2004.

 
Recent Records

BOX has recently set several records, including:
  • Most contracts traded in a single session: 152,954 contracts on July 16, 2004
  • Most contracts traded in a single class in a single session: 37,215 QQQs traded on August 6, 2004
  • Highest monthly daily average volume: 93,115 contracts per day in July, 2004

As illustrated by the graph, BOX is averaging nearly 100,000 contracts per day after only six months of trading.



 
Price Improvement*: the First Six Months

During the first six months, over 700,000 contracts were traded in the BOX PIP* auction, representing cumulative year-to-date savings to investors of over $ 1.4 million. Average price improvement to customer orders entering the PIP continues to average nearly $ 2 per contract over the best price available on the other five exchanges.

PIP trades represent slightly more than 10% of overall BOX trading volume. To view daily PIP statistics, click here.

Brokers looking for true best execution of their customers' orders and market makers who wish to participate in the fast, free, low cost market structure of BOX should contact us by email or call (312) 310 5005 to get connected.

* There is a Patent Pending on the BOX market model, including the PIP.


 
BOX Market Share Rises


BOX overall market share in the classes listed approaches 4% with significantly more than that on numerous individual classes. The table below provides the BOX market share of national volume on the ten most active classes on Friday, August 6, 2004 .

Symbol Market Share
QQQ 3.8%
MSFT 6.3%
QCOM 8.0%
CSCO 3.2%
INTC 4.5%
YHOO 4.3%
IBM 8.8%
EBAY 5.6%
C 4.8%
GE 4.2%

This information is available daily on the BOX website (here).


 
Connectivity to BOX

There are presently 75 broker dealer firms with direct connections to the BOX trading engine with an additional 25 in development; for a full list of BOX Participants, click here. There are seventeen independent service vendors (ISVs) with connectivity to BOX.


 
New Shareholder in BOX

Morgan Stanley, the largest US equity options trading firm, has become an equity partner in BOX LLC, a significant vote of confidence in BOX’s future. The firm joins Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Interactive Brokers, JPMorgan and UBS, all leading equity options firms, as BOX LLC shareholders. The other BOX shareholders are the Boston Stock Exchange and the Montreal Exchange.

 
 
Fully Automated - Fully
electronic equity options
exchange.

Low Entry Costs -
No seats to buy or rent.

Price and Time Priority -
Orders are handled on
a strict price/time priority without a specialist controlling the price.
There is no wheel for "allocating" trades that disincents competition.

Price Improvement Auctions - BOX includes
a unique electronic mini-auction which provides price improvement to orders that would otherwise be printed elsewhere at the NBBO.

Multiple, Competing Market
Makers - BOX places no limits on the number of market makers who may continuously quote on a given options class. They compete equally on a price and time basis.

Anonymous - BOX does
not provide information on broker identification when an order is displayed in the order book.

Transparent - Order book broadcasting five best price limitsallows traders to see market depth.

Open Architecture – Each trader may connect whatever trading system
he wishes.

Equal Treatment of Orders - BOX does not discriminate order priority on the basis of the type of account. All orders on the BOX book
are available to all traders on a first come, first served basis with no limitation on professional order executions.

 

Boston Options