The process of founding the ISA commenced in 1997 when the idea was promoted to create an exchange constructed on the concept that a fair market and technologically based structure would generate superior trading conditions for investors. As such, the ISE was formed on 24th February 2000 as the first US securities exchange endorsed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
After just 1.5 years of trading, the ISA achieved the status of the third largest equity options exchange in the US after recording a daily volume of just over 380,000 contracts during October 2001. On 1st March 2003, the ISE surpassed even this achievement by attaining top spot after registering daily volumes in excess of 700,000 contracts. After receiving a number of international accolades, the ISE went public by holding its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on 9th March 2005. After achieving daily volumes greater then 4 million contracts, the ISE launched its innovative Alternative-Markets-trading platform later that year. On the 8th September, the ISE introduced its own stock equity exchange.
ISE presented its new currency options product to the markets during April 2007. The exchange produced another innovative product during 2008, call the Flash, which improved the processing quality of clients’ orders. Later that year, a new Order Routing System was installed which significantly reduced the latency times for members as well as providing a superior foundation for future improvements. Recently, the ISE has been heavily involved in submitting recommendations to reform and improve the supervision of the US financial industry.
The ISE currently services the biggest equity options exchange in the world by offering options based on over 2,000 underlying assets. The ISE is responsible for conducting nearly 99% of the options markets average trading volume on a daily basis. This ground-breaking exchange launched its Quarterly Options (Quarterlies) during July 2009. This is an innovative tool specifically devised in response to client requests for new expiry times that were more compliant with their trading strategies. A shorter term version was presented shortly afterwards, termed the weekly, in order to boost the range of expiry times even further.
