| Description | Index FLexible EXchange (Index FLEX) options are exchange-traded options on underlying indexes. Key contract terms, including expiration dates, exercise style, exercise prices, and settlement value determination, can be customized. |
| Customized Contract Terms | Expiration Date: Up to three years, and in some cases up to five years, from trade date however the expiration date may not fall on the two business days immediately preceding or following the third Friday of a month (expiration Friday). |
| Exercise Style | American, European or Capped (European). |
| Exercise (strike) Price | May be based on an index level, a percentage or numerical deviation from a closing or intraday index level, or any other reasonable method for deriving an index level, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent. |
| Determination of Exercise Settlement Value | Opening settlement based on the opening value of an index on the expiration date; closing settlement based on the closing value of an index on the expiration date; average of the opening and closing values of an index on the expiration date; average of the high and low values of an index on the expiration date; or average of the opening settlement value, closing settlement value, and high and low values of an index on the expiration date. American-style Index FLEX options, exercised prior to expiration date, are settled based on the closing value on the index on the exercise date. |
| Minimum Size | $10 million notional for broad-based indexes. $5 million notional for narrow-based indexes. To trade on existing Index FLEX, $1 million notional is the minimum trade size. |
| Option Premium Quotations | Stated in dollars and cents or pennies rounded to the nearest minimum price variation (i.e. $.05 for premium bids under $3 and $.10 for those above $3). |
| Dissemination of Prices and Quotes | RFQs, quotes and trades are disseminated as Administrative Text Messages through Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) and are received on quotation terminals of OPRA vendors who display FLEX options data. |
| Position Limits | 200,000 contracts on the same side of the market on each broad-based index and up to four times the position limit for standard index options in industry groups. Index FLEX options are not aggregated with conventional index option contracts and there are no position limits for the Major Market Index. |
| Minimum Customer Margin for Uncovered Writers | Subject to the same customer margin requirements governing traditional broad-market index options: 100% of the market value of the option plus 15% of the value of the underlying index less any out-of-the-money amount, subject to a minimum of 100% of the market value of the option plus 10% of the value of the underlying index. |
| Trading Hours | Varies by index. See specification sheets. |
| Trading System | Modified Specialist/Registered Options Trader: Request for Quote (RFQ) procedures are utilized. |