February 20, 2015

CHICAGO, IL — February 20, 2015 - The Chicago Board Options Exchange ® (CBOE ® ) announced that the exchange was named “Best Options Exchange” for the second consecutive year at the third annual Markets Media Markets Choice Awards last night in New York City.

The Markets Choice Awards, which seek to recognize “excellence in institutional markets,” determines winners “through extensive interviews with senior market professionals, in conjunction with reader voting on www.marketsmedia.com and consultation with Markets Media ’s own Advisory Board.”

The “Best Options Exchange” award recognized CBOE’s continued commitment to product and technology innovation and cited the high marks the exchange received for customer satisfaction. The 2015 Markets Choice Awards’ methodology focused on the opinions of market participants, with a focus on 2014 performance.

In citing CBOE’s achievements, Markets Media noted that “market share is the bottom-line gauge of success,” for exchange operators. “If a venue provides market participants with the right liquidity, product choice, pricing and customer service, market participants will trade there; if not, they won’t.  CBOE Holdings walked the walk in 2014, as it led all U.S. options-exchange operators with a market share of about 30 percent.”

In addition, “the 42-year-old company has a veritable 96 percent stranglehold in index options, led by its CBOE Volatility Index (VIX Index) product suite,” Markets Media noted. And the exchange “isn’t standing still,” with plans to exclusively offer options trading in the U.S. on several MSCI Indexes, including the well-known MSCI EAFE Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

As a leader in options and volatility product innovation, trading technology and investor education, CBOE has consistently received industry awards over the past decade, totaling nearly three dozen in areas such as leadership and new product and technology development.  At last year’s Markets Choice Awards ceremony, CBOE was recognized as “Best Options Exchange.” Earlier this year, CBOE won two awards at The Wall Street Letter’ s Institutional Trading Awards: “Best Options Trading Venue” and “Best Mobile Application.”

About CBOE

CBOE, the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options, continues to set the bar for options and volatility trading through product innovation, trading technology and investor education. CBOE Holdings offers equity, index and ETP options, including proprietary products, such as S&P 500 options (SPX), the most active U.S. index option, and options and futures on the CBOE Volatility Index (the VIX Index). Other products engineered by CBOE include equity options, security index options, Weeklys options, LEAPS options, FLEX options, and benchmark products such as the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM). CBOE Holdings is home to the world-renowned Options Institute and www.cboe.com. the go-to place for options and volatility trading resources.

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