CBOT Reports Strong Volume Following First Day of Ag Side-by-Side Trading

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Jennifer Rook
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CBOT Reports Strong Volume in Overall Agricultural Futures Complex Following First Day of Trading Side-by-Side

CHICAGO, IL, August 2, 2006 - The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT®), one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, reported that on the first full day of side-by-side trading of its benchmark Agricultural futures contracts a total of 436,154 contracts traded – 358,054 contracts traded via open auction and 61,032 contracts traded electronically. The CBOT Agricultural options traded an additional 86,702 contracts.

CBOT President and CEO Bernard W. Dan said, “The volume totals we witnessed in open auction as well as on the screen during the first day of side-by-side trading reflects the market’s support for our initiative to create additional trading opportunities. The strong volume in the Ag futures complex is also indicative of our market participants leveraging the trading expertise found in our open auction markets.”

CBOT Chief Operating Officer Bryan T. Durkin said, “We are also pleased to report that operations ran very smoothly yesterday, which is a testament to the collaborative work and effort of our own project teams and member task forces to make the implementation seamless. As part of our strategy, we focused on putting tools in place that complement the flow of business on the CBOT’s existing open auction trading environment and also encouraged participation on the screen. Having these tools in place enabled our market participants to do what they do best – create deep, liquid markets.”

The CBOT expanded the electronic trading hours of its Agricultural futures contracts to provide greater access to the CBOT’s benchmark Agricultural markets and increase trading opportunities for new and existing CBOT customers worldwide. Previously, CBOT’s Agricultural futures contracts traded electronically after hours, which enabled the Exchange to expand the distribution of its Agricultural products globally, particularly in Asia and Europe.

The electronic trading hours for the CBOT’s Agricultural futures complex, which includes Corn, Wheat, Soybean, Soybean Oil, Soybean Meal, Rough Rice, Oat and South American Soybean contracts are during daytime trading from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. (Chicago Time) and resume from 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Aside from differing ticker symbols, the contract specifications for the electronically-traded Agricultural products are the same as those traded on the open auction platform. The contracts are fully fungible regardless of trading platform. To learn more about this initiative, please visit the Exchange’s website, www.cbot.com.

About the CBOT

As one of the leading global derivative exchanges, the Chicago Board of Trade provides a diverse mix of financial, equity and commodity futures and options-on-futures products. Building on its 158-year history, the CBOT continues to advance into the future using the strength of deep liquidity, market integrity and member-trader expertise. Using superior trading technology in both electronic and open-auction trading platforms, the CBOT provides premier customer service to risk managers and investors worldwide.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and includes any use of the words “may,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue.” These statements are based on management’s current expectations and involve assumptions that may be subject to change or risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. Accordingly, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement contained in this press release. The factors that may affect our performance may be found in the Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed by CBOT Holdings, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). These filings can be obtained at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.