ISE Intl Secs Exchange Hldgs

The International Securities Exchange (NYSE:ISE) said today that it has initiated trading in options on the ISE 250 Index, its first broad-based proprietary index. The ticker symbol for the ISE 250 Index is IXZ. The ISE 250 Index tracks the top 250 US stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market. The index's components have an adjusted capitalization of about $9 trillion. Timber Hill LLC, a unit of Interactive Brokers LLC, will serve as the index's Primary Market Maker (PMM). The ISE 250 Index will trade on a March expiration cycle in bin 7. Additional information about the index, including exercise limits, methodology guides, component lists and weightings, performance metrics and historical data is available on ISE's website, www.iseoptions.com. "The ISE 250 represents the first of our broad-based index products, and is another sign of ISE's determination to bring competition and innovation to index options trading. Investors now have an efficient and cost-effective choice when they want to trade or hedge a significant portion of the stock market. We are committed to bringing the benefits of the ISE way of trading to all areas of the options market," said Bruce D. Goldberg, ISE's Chief Marketing Officer. 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. Forward Looking Statements 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 statement on Form S-1, current reports on Form 8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as amended.