Notice No. 02-78
March 19, 2002



TO:		All NYMEX Members/Member Firms
		All NYMEX Division Clearing Members
		All NYMEX Division Floor Traders
		All NYMEX Division Operations Managers

FROM:	George Henderson, Vice President

RE:		Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading
		Floor and Clearing Members - Revised Hours
________________________________________________________________

The expiration date for the April 2002 options contract for Unleaded
Gasoline (GOJ2), Heating Oil (OHJ2) and Natural Gas (ONJ2) is Monday, March
25, 2002.


	GENERAL OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

All Clearing Members and Qualified Floor Traders that carried an options
position as of the close of business day prior to the expiration day, or
engaged in trading activity on Expiration Day in the expiring options
contract will be required to have a knowledgeable, duly authorized
representative present at their normal work station promptly at 4:40 p.m.
until released by the Exchange staff as specified below.  All adjustments
and/or corrections, must be accompanied by relevant supporting documentation
prior to being incorporated into expiration processing, in essence making
the expiration processing an extension of the afternoon trade resolution
procedures.  All input to the NYMEX Clearing Department will conclude no
later than 30 minutes after floor representatives are released.

Exchange Clearing (299-2110), Floor Trade Processing (299-2068 and 299-2169)
personnel, as well as a representative of the Floor Committee will be
available to assist with the processing of notices of Exercise and
Abandonment, position transfers, trade corrections and other questions or
problems you may have.



CLEARING DEPARTMENT OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

The Option Expiration process is a screen based process for which all
information is provided on the screens on C21 terminals. No Option
Expiration Reports will be provided. The following screens will assist you
through the Option Expiration process:

MEMBER TRADE INQUIRY
Contains real-time top day trade information, trade information for the
previous 4 business days and trade=s adjusted for the previous 4 business
days by adjustment date.

SINGLE POSITION MAINTENANCE
Contains a real-time snapshot for each option series from the start of day
position to the projected end of day position.

REVIEW ACCEPT REJECT TRANSFERS
Contains all trade and position transfers ATO@ your firm and the status of
each transfer.

REVIEW SUBMITTED TRANSFERS
Contains all trade and position transfer AFROM@ your firm and the status of
each transfer.

EXERCISE NOTICE SUBMISSION
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number
of long positions you wish to exercise.

DO NOT EXERCISE SUBMISSION
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number
of long positions you wish to abandon.

POSITION CHANGE SUBMISSION
PCS may be submitted either by manual input or by electronic transmission.
Any PCS input on a Clearing 21 terminal will be the input processed by the
system.  This input may be made at any time prior to 6:45 p.m.  Any PCS
input via transmission for that contract series will be disregarded.

ALL POSITIONS ARE DEEMED FINAL
Upon completion of all PCS input, all positions will be deemed final.

EXERCISE/ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION
Will be available to you on the Single Position Maintenance window by
contract series or the Assignment List window which contains all your
Assignments on one window. You will be notified of its availability by C21
E-Mail and by Fast Facts. This should occur within 1 hour of the last PCS
input.

All Clearing Members are required to have an authorized representative(s) at
their C21 workstations in preparation for any communication during the
expiration process.

FAST FACTS
Clearing Members should call the Fast Facts information service 301-4871,
access code 700 for event messages advising Members of the event status.

E-MAIL
Clearing Members should read their C21 E-Mail messages immediately to be
aware of event status.

The standard event Fast Facts and/or E-Mail messages and the sequence in
which they will be announced are:

STANDARD EVENT			APPROXIMATE TIME		  USUAL	FAST
FACTS(F)
  MESSAGES				   OF MESSAGE		EVENT TIME
E-MAIL    (E)
					  AVAILABILITY
BOTH      (B)

Announce Out-of-the    			 4:45PM		 4:45PM		F
Money Exercise and In-the-Money
Do Not Exercise Submissions

Announce Final Input to C21		 6:30PM		 6:45PM		E
Cutoff Time

All positions are deemed final	 7:00PM		 7:00PM		F

Announce Exercise/Assignment		 7:30PM		 7:30PM		B
Information Available on the Single
Position Maintenance Windows

All Report Distribution is		10:00PM		10:00PM		F
completed

The times appearing in the Usual Event Time column are based on normal
operational conditions and could vary.

If you have any questions concerning these procedures, please contact
Anthony Di Benedetto at 299-2152 or John Ramos at 299-2142 prior to the
expiration date.

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