End-of-Month Options on S&P500 trading begins

End-of-Month Options on CME S&P 500® and CME E-mini® S&P 500 Futures
Trading Begins May 21, 2006

In response to customer demand, on Sunday, CME will launch European-style end-of-month (EOM) options on CME S&P 500 and CME E-mini S&P 500 futures products.

These new contracts expire on the last business day of the month and complement existing American-style quarterly and serial options on the standard-size and CME E-mini S&P 500 futures contracts.

Because EOM options eliminate early assignment risks they are expected to attract a new audience of users and thereby increase liquidity in these markets.

Features and Benefits

These contracts:

- Prohibit contrarian instruction. All in-the-money options are automatically exercised at expiration, and all options not in-the-money are automatically abandoned
- Accommodate month-end accounting practices
- Settle into the nearest-expiring futures contracts
- Enable customers to initiate end-of-month trades at CME rather than over-the-counter markets, with CME Clearing providing central counterparty clearing
- Apply a special fixing price based on the volume weighted average trading price of CME E-mini S&P 500 futures in the last 30 seconds (2:59:30 – 3:00:00) before the 3:00 p.m. options expiration (communicated using the symbol “ESF”)
- Are supported by market makers