The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) announced today that it plans to expand the availability of its options on Full-sized Gold (100 oz.) and Silver (5,000 oz.) futures by listing the contracts on its open auction trading floor, side-by-side with the e-cbot® electronic trading platform, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2006. Currently, the contracts trade exclusively on e-cbot, the Exchange’s electronic trading platform.

Also, effective October 1, 2006, the CBOT is waiving all Exchange transaction fees for Metals options trading for all fee categories. The fee waiver will apply to Metals options trade transactions on both CBOT platforms. The transaction fee waiver will remain in effect until June 30, 2007.

“We believe listing these contracts side-by-side -- which was designed to meet customer demand, attract new market users, and ultimately enhance liquidity in the metals options market -- will create greater opportunities for the marketplace by accommodating all types of metals options strategies, regardless of their complexity,” said Robert Ray, Senior Vice President of Business Development for the CBOT. “This creation of a single, centralized pool of liquidity will facilitate arbitrage and result in tighter, more competitive bid/ask spreads and enhanced liquidity for customers using either platform. In addition to trading Metals options on e-cbot, customers will be able to submit Gold and Silver options trades via the CBOT’s electronic order entry system, which today routes over 90 percent of all orders to the CBOT trading floor. This “one click” trading provides customers with the benefits of near real-time trade matching, near real-time trade confirmations and straight-through processing.”

In addition, the CBOT is extending until June 30, 2007 its existing Metals futures fee waiver for members and member firms proprietary accounts. The CBOT’s all-electronic Metals futures complex continues to attract new market participants and achieve greater volume since the contracts were launched in October 2004. During the month of August, CBOT Full-sized Gold futures contracts captured 53 percent market share of all gold futures listed in North America.

Strong customer demand led the CBOT to make several efficiency enhancements to its Metals complex, including removing all time constraints for executing Transitory Exchange-for-Physical (EFPs) and the new directed fungibility program launched on September 1. The CBOT also plans to implement an electronic warehouse receipt delivery process in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The CBOT’s Metals complex consists of Full-sized Gold (100 oz.) futures and options contracts, mini-sized Gold (33 oz.) futures contracts, Full-sized Silver (5,000 oz.) futures and options contracts, and mini-sized Silver (1,000 oz.) futures contracts. To view the live book of bids, offers and quantities, or to obtain more information about the CBOT Metals complex, please visit the Exchange’s web site at www.cbot.com/metals.