American Stock Exchange News Release

Options Release
Media Contact: Mary Chung
American Stock Exchange
212-306-1641/mary.chung@amex.com

AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCES SEC APPROVAL OF TWO REMOTE QUOTING PLANS

New York, April 18, 2006 -  The American Stock Exchange (Amex) announced today that it received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for two new classes of Registered Options Traders ("ROTs"): Remote Registered Options Traders ("RROTs") and Supplemental Registered Options Traders ("SROTs").

RROTs shall be specialists or market makers who would act as ROTs on the Amex by entering bids and offers electronically from locations other than the crowd where the applicable options classes are traded. Floor members will be granted a certain number of remote quoting rights based upon their percentage of market share in the options in which they specialize or upon the percentage of floor volume they execute. Amex expects members granted rights to act as RROTs to begin trading May 1, 2006.

SROTs will be a group of six member organizations which will be granted remote quoting rights to trade at least 300-400 most active options. Amex is currently accepting applications from firms seeking to quote and trade as SROTs and expects to announce its selected firms in early May.

"I believe that the proposed two new classes of ROTs will improve the depth and liquidity of our option quotes and significantly enhance the ability of the Amex to compete for order flow," said Mike Bickford, Senior Vice President of Options at the Amex.

About American Stock Exchange

The American Stock Exchange® (Amex®) is the only primary exchange that offers trading across a full range of equities, options and exchange traded funds (ETFs), including structured products and HOLDRSSM. In addition to its role as a national equities market, the Amex is the pioneer of the ETF, responsible for bringing the first domestic product to market in 1993. Leading the industry in ETF listings, the Amex lists 164 ETFs to date. The Amex is also one of the largest options exchanges in the U.S., trading options on broad-based and sector indexes as well as domestic and foreign stocks.