Eurex

In 1998 Deutsche Terminbörse and SOFFEX (Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange) were merged to form Eurex . They were pioneers in providing access to derivatives markets via electronic trading platforms. The exchange has continued to grow with its successful core products and extended its offering with new services and product innovations establishing a leading position in the derivatives industry.

Eurex is one of the world's leading futures and options market for euro denominated derivative instruments. Its electronic trading platform provides access to a broad range of international benchmark products. The market participants are connected from 650 locations worldwide. The trading volume exceeded 801 million contracts in 2002. This was a 19% increase from the previous year.

These high volumes are generated from trading on a full range of fixed income, equity index, exchange traded funds and stock option products. Fixed income products cover the German yield curve from one month to thirty years and the Swiss yield curve from eight to thirteen years. It's benchmark contract, the Euro Bund Future, is part of this segment.

Eurex Clearing AG offers central counterparty services for instruments traded on the Eurex exchanges, Eurex Bonds and Eurex Repo as well as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Xetra and floor).

Eurex's equity index products include futures and options on blue chip German, Swiss, Finish, European and global indexes including high profile indexes such as the DAX, Dow Jones (EURO) STOXXSM 50 and Dow Jones Global Titans 50SM. It also offers market sector index derivatives based on the Dow Jones STOXXSM 600 and Dow Jones EURO STOXXSM Indexes. Futures and options on Automobile, Banks, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Media, Technology, Telecommunications and Utilities sector indexes are available for trading.

In the equity options segment, Eurex lists options on Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Swiss and US stocks, including options on global stocks like DaimlerChrysler, Microsoft, Nokia and Royal Dutch Petroleum. Eurex extended its product range by listing futures and options on Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs).