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ISE News ISE Reports Monthly Volume for February 2007

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The International Securities Exchange (NYSE:ISE) today reported that average daily trading volume for equity and index options contracts for February 2007 increased 14.2% to 2.7 million contracts as compared to 2.4 million contracts during the same period in 2006. Total equity and index options volume for the month increased 14.2% to 51.1 million contracts from 44.8 million contracts in the same year-ago period.

On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of equity and index options increased 8.4% to 2.7 million contracts traded as compared to 2.5 million contracts traded in the prior year. Total year-to-date equity and index volume through February 2007 increased 8.4% to 106.9 million contracts from 98.6 million contracts in the same period last year.

Dividend Trade Activity

Our market share statistics continue to be negatively impacted by trading activity related to dividend trades among certain options market makers. These trades temporarily inflate and distort trading volume and market share when transacted. 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 31.5% from 30.1%, an increase of 1.4 market share points.

On a year-to-date basis, our market share would increase to 31.9% from 30.2%, an increase of 1.7 market share points, if the volume from the largest dividend trades were excluded. The exclusion of dividend trades from total industry volume data presents a more relevant measure of the relative trends in our business.

Monthly Highlights

• ISE was the largest U.S. equity options exchange in February.
• On February 5, 2007, ISE announced that Lava Trading Inc. added the ISE Stock Exchange as an equity execution destination. Lava joins other trading solutions providers connected to the ISE Stock Exchange, including InstaQuote, MIXIT, Neovest, Portware, Orc Software, and Order Execution Services.
• On February 12, 2007, ISE completed the initial rollout of its Second Market for options. Approximately 700 options classes now trade in the Second Market. ISE also announced the addition of three Second Market Competitive Market Makers (CMMs®): Lehman Brothers Inc., DC Trading Partners LLC and Monadnock Capital Management, LP. The total number of Second Market CMMs is now thirteen.
• On February 13, 2007, ISE completed the rollout of its fully-displayed stock market for the ISE Stock Exchange. Traders can now access approximately 6,000 National Market System (NMS) securities through both ISE's non-displayed liquidity pool, MidPoint Match™ and its displayed market.
• On February 21, 2007, ISE launched an enhanced version of ISEE Select™, its customized sentiment data offering. New features include the ability to chart intraday and historical sentiment values as well as the capability to download the historical values for further analysis. ISE also announced that OptionsDevil, Schaeffer's Investment Research, SentimenTrader, and Terra Nova Financial, LLC joined the ISEE Select marketing alliance.
• On February 26, 2007, ISE announced that it entered into an agreement with First Trust Advisors L.P. to create and list Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) on three proprietary ISE indexes. First Trust plans to develop ETFs based on the ISE Water Index (underlying index ticker: HHO), ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index (underlying index ticker: FUM), and ISE ChIndia Index (underlying index ticker: to be determined).
• On February 27, 2007, ISE set a new record daily trading volume of 5,531,875 equity and index options contracts. Trading volume in the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQQ) also reached a new high of 1,032,296 contracts.
• ISE traded more volume than any other options exchange in 918 of 1,691 issues in its listings.

ISE Background

International Securities Exchange Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ISE), through its subsidiaries, operates a family of innovative securities markets. ISE is founded on the principle that technology and competition create better, more efficient markets for investors and consists of an options exchange, a stock exchange and an alternative markets platform. ISE continually enhances its trading systems and develops new products to provide investors with the best marketplace and investment tools to trade smarter.

ISE developed a unique market structure for advanced screen-based trading systems and in May 2000 launched the first fully electronic US options exchange. Currently, ISE operates the largest U.S. equity options exchange and is among the leading options exchanges in the world. ISE offers index options, including a portfolio of proprietary index products, and enhanced market data products for sophisticated investors. ISE FX Options™ are slated to launch in 2007.

ISE Stock Exchange, launched in September 2006 with strategic partners, includes an innovative MidPoint Match™ platform which offers investors continuous price improvement. MidPoint Match was integrated with a fully displayed Best Bid Offer market in December 2006.

ISE’s alternative markets business currently consists of an events market trading platform known as Longitude. Longitude’s patented and proprietary technology provides a unique parimutuel structure for derivatives auctions which results in greater trading and pricing flexibility for market participants.

For more information about ISE and its options exchange, visit www.iseoptions.com and for more information about ISE Stock Exchange, visit www.isestock.com. Additionally, to learn more about ISE alternative markets technology, visit www.longitude.com.

Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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 annual report on Form 10-K, current reports on Form 8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.