BOSTON OPTIONS EXCHANGE ENDS MAKE-OR-TAKE PRICING

Posted August 28, 2009

BOSTON – The Boston Options Exchange (BOX), an all-electronic equity options market, will eliminate Make or Take pricing on all Penny Pilot Classes effective September 1, pending regulatory approval.

“Make or Take pricing was an experiment which failed to raise BOX’s market share,” says William Easley, Vice Chairman of BOX. “We often found ourselves as last choice on inter-market linkage routers even when we matched NBBO.”

BOX eliminated Make or Take fees for SPY, QQQQ and IWM on July 2. With this change, trade executions for public customers will not be subject to a trading fee on any of the current 57 classes which are part of the Penny Pilot Program, while all other account types will be subject to a fee of 20 cents per contract. The changes do not affect the fee structure of the Non-Penny Classes where all accounts that remove liquidity receive a credit.