CBOE Holdings Announces Plans for S&P 500 Index Options on C2

Under the proposed rule change filed with the SEC, SPXpm will be identical in structure to CBOE's traditional SPX index option product, except it will have "p.m." settlement.

The company intends to broaden its customer reach by providing this "point-and-click," "p.m." settled version of its most actively traded index product. As proposed, SPXpm will enable customers to trade SPX options with a settlement convention found in the OTC market, without having to sacrifice the benefits and safeguards of exchange trading and clearing.

"We worked very closely with our customers to determine how best to design and roll out an electronic version of this very popular product," said William J. Brodsky, CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO. "Feedback from market participants indicated that p.m. settlement could bring new users into our market." "We are very pleased, of course, to continue to offer our traditional SPX product in open outcry to customers who prefer that method," Brodsky said. "We expect to provide our customers with two very deep pools of liquidity, one that favors point-and-click access and one that favors the flexibility and negotiation available in open outcry."

About S&P 500 Index (SPX) options

SPX options are CBOE's flagship product. Today, the S&P 500 Index stands as the premier broad-market indicator. The options based on the index provide a powerful and flexible tool that allows investors to synthetically adjust their positions to a 500-stock portfolio, making SPX options a leading portfolio risk management tool among institutional investors. SPX options have been traded exclusively at CBOE since 1983 and have grown into the largest and most-actively traded contract at the exchange, as volume totaled more than 175 million contracts in 2010. CBOE Holdings, Inc. is the holding company for Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), C2 Options Exchange and other subsidiaries.