ISE Intl Secs Exchange Hldgs

The International Securities Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ISE) today reported that average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts for February 2006 increased 37.9% to 2.4 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 37.9% to 44.8 million contracts from 32.5 million contracts in the same year-ago period. On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of equity and index options increased 44.0% to 2.5 million contracts traded as compared to 1.8 million contracts traded in the prior year. Total equity and index volume through February 2006 increased 44.0% to 98.6 million contracts from 68.5 million contracts in the same period last year. As was the case in prior months, we witnessed trading activity among options market makers on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Pacific Exchange related to dividend trades whereby traders continued to profit at the expense of investors who failed to exercise their call options immediately prior to a stock going ex-dividend. If the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded from the data, our market share of equity options for the month of February would increase to 34.9% from 33.8%, an increase of 1.1 market share points. On a year-to-date basis, our market share would increase to 34.7% from 32.9%, an increase of 1.8 market share points, when the volume from the largest dividend trades was excluded. The exclusion of dividend trades from total industry volume data presents a more relevant measure of the relative trends in our business. -0- *T Equity and Index Options Volume Statistics Current Month Year-to-Date % % (000s) Feb-06 Feb-05 Change Feb-06 Feb-05 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISE Average Daily Volume 2,356.3 1,709.2 37.9% 2,528.5 1,756.2 44.0% ISE Total Volume 44,770.2 32,474.5 37.9% 98,612.8 68,493.7 44.0% Industry Average Daily Volume 7,525.1 5,593.7 34.5% 8,234.8 5,736.4 43.6% Market Share 31.3% 30.6% 0.7 pts 30.7% 30.6% 0.1 pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISE Market Share: Customer 32.4% 31.0% 1.4 pts 32.3% 30.9% 1.4 pts ISE Market Share: Firm 27.1% 21.8% 5.3 pts 25.4% 20.4% 5.0 pts ISE Market Share: Market Maker 31.5% 32.4% (0.9) pts 30.8% 33.0% (2.2)pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Equity Options Volume Statistics Current Month Year-to-Date % % (000s) Feb-06 Feb-05 Change Feb-06 Feb-05 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISE Average Daily Volume 2,329.3 1,705.6 36.6% 2,498.7 1,754.3 42.4% ISE Total Volume 44,257.1 32,406.8 36.6% 97,448.8 68,417.7 42.4% Industry Average Daily Volume 6,900.9 5,130.8 34.5% 7,587.4 5,275.5 43.8% Market Share 33.8% 33.2% 0.5 pts 32.9% 33.3% (0.3)pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISE Market Share: Customer 34.7% 33.3% 1.4 pts 34.4% 33.2% 1.2 pts ISE Market Share: Firm 30.2% 24.6% 5.6 pts 28.1% 22.9% 5.2 pts ISE Market Share: Market Maker 33.9% 35.3% (1.4) pts 33.0% 35.8% (2.8)pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Index Options Volume Statistics Current Month Year-to-Date % % (000s) Feb-06 Feb-05 Change Feb-06 Feb-05 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISE Average Daily Volume 27.0 3.6 N/M 29.8 1.9 N/M ISE Total Volume 513.1 67.7 N/M 1,164.0 76.0 N/M Industry Average Daily Volume 624.3 462.9 34.8% 647.5 461.0 40.5% Market Share 4.3% 0.8% 3.5 pts 4.6% 0.4% 4.2 pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *T Monthly Highlights -- ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in February. -- ISE set a new record for the single largest equity options transaction at the exchange when 165,000 Microsoft October 30 calls traded at $0.40 on February 23, 2006 by one of its Electronic Access Members (EAM). -- ISE traded more volume in 629 of 847 issues in its listings than any other options exchange. ISE Background The International Securities Exchange, the world's largest equity options exchange, was founded on the principle that technology fosters and infuses new efficiencies and operational innovations into securities trading. After developing an innovative market structure that integrated auction market principles into an advanced screen-based trading system, ISE launched the first fully electronic US options exchange in May 2000. ISE continually enhances its trading systems to provide investors with the best marketplace to execute their options orders. For more information about ISE, its products and its technology, visit www.iseoptions.com. This press release contains "forward looking statements." These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward looking statements. We undertake no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to update these statements. Factors that could affect our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements and cause them to materially differ from those contained in the forward looking statements can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our registration statements on Form S-1, current reports on Form 8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as amended.