Notice No. 00-372
November 6, 2000



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

FROM: Michael Campanelli, Vice President, Floor Operations, COMEX Division

RE:Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and 
Clearing Members
______________________________________________________________________________

The expiration date for the December 2000 options contract for Silver (SO Z0) 
and Gold (OG Z0) is Friday, November 10, 2000.

 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 on-line 
trade entry (&#61505;OLTE&#61504;) system trained representative available 
until released by the Exchange staff.  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.

Exchange Clearing (299-2110) and Trade Processing (299-2465 and 299-2044) 
personnel 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.

Failure by any Clearing Member or qualified Floor Trader to comply with 
procedures as outlined herein may result in severe disciplinary action by the 
Exchange and potential financial liability to customers or members for 
failure to exercise diligence in the processing of information.

TRADING FLOOR OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

Trading in the December 2000 Silver and Gold Options Contracts will cease at 
2:25 P.M. and 2:30 P.M. respectively on November 10, 2000.  All Brokers and 
Traders must inform their Clearing Members of their intentions to exercise or 
abandon such Options by 4:00 P.M.

On Friday, November 10, 2000, all Brokers and Clearing Members must have a 
duly authorized, On-Line Trade Entry (&#61505;OLTE&#61504;) system trained 
representative available until such time as the Exchange deems necessary.

NOTE: After 4:30 P.M. all expiring option trade data must be inputted on 
special &#61505;OLTE&#61504; terminals located in the Trade Processing Room. 
Any other means of submission will be rejected by the Exchange.  Members will 
be able to submit all other trade data until 5:00 P.M.

After the UTR and the Preliminary Spot Month Matched Trade Reports are 
displayed, Clearing Member representatives will be able to pick up their 
Preliminary Clearing reports at the Clearing Department.

A final review of all submissions will be made, the Supervisor of the Trade 
Processing Room will detain only those Clearing Members and/or Broker 
representatives involved.  All final corrections will be made at this time 
and upon determination of the Supervisor that all option processing is 
complete, all representatives will be released.

Exchange Reports based on Friday,s submissions and processing will be 
available on Monday morning November 13, 2000.

In the event that you have any questions regarding the foregoing trading 
floor procedures please contact Michael Campanelli at (212) 299-2072 or David 
Sherman at (212) 299-2061.

CLEARING DEPARTMENT OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

1. OPEN POSITION CONFIRMATION (&#61505;OPC&#61504;) - The OPC should reflect 
as accurately as possible all futures and options gross positions as of 
close-of business on the business day prior to expiration.  Review the 
estimated current gross positions as shown and make appropriate adjustments.  
The OPC must be submitted not later than 9:00 AM.

2.   OPTIONS EXERCISE/ABANDONMENT REQUEST FORM (&#61505;E/A&#61504;) - An 
expiring option with a strike price in-the-money by one tick or more will be 
subject to automatic exercise unless an Option Abandonment Request form is 
submitted advising that a Clearing Member (&#61505;CM&#61504;) elects to 
abandon some or all of its position in that strike price (i.e., for the 
option series).  All other options series in the expiring month will be 
subject to automatic abandonment unless an Option Exercise Request form is 
submitted.  When submitting an E/A form, please note the following:

(a) An E/A form must be submitted not later than 5:00 PM.
(b) Do not submit an Exercise form for positions in strike prices, which are 
subject to automatic
Exercise nor submit an Abandonment form for positions in strike prices, which 
are subject to automatic abandonment.
(c) If a CM wishes to submit an E/A form to abandon a position in a strike 
price subject to automatic exercise or wishes to exercise a position in a 
strike price which is out of the money, it is necessary to notify Clearing by 
telephone of such anticipated action.  The CM must have an officer available 
to confirm such intention.
(d) CMs may secure from Clearing a time-stamped receipt of the CM copy to 
assure submission  of the CM&#61501;s E/A forms.

3. OPTION POSITION REDUCTION REQUEST FORM (&#61505;OPRR&#61504;) - As a 
general rule, purchases and sales of option contracts are presumed to be new 
business.   If some or all of your purchases and sales are in fact undertaken 
for position liquidation purposes, OPRR forms may be submitted on the day of 
expiration and will be used in conjunction with trade data to reduce your 
projected position in an expiring contract.  OPRR requests in excess of 
actual traded volume will be rejected.  Exception: Cabinet trades and cancel 
correction trades will automatically liquidate existing positions, therefore 
do not submit an OPRR form for cabinet or cancel correction trades.
The OPRR form must be submitted not later than 5:00 PM.

4. HOUSE/CUSTOMER POSITION TRANSFER REQUEST FORM (&#61505;H/C&#61504;) - H/C 
forms may be used only to transfer previously cleared contracts between a 
CM&#61501;s house and customer accounts. Problem trades (those which have not 
cleared prior to expiration day), must be corrected using COMEX&#61501;s 
on-line trade entry system under the direct supervision of the Trade Audits 
Department of COMEX (&#61505;Trade Audits&#61504;).  The H/C form must be 
submitted not later than 3:30 PM.

5. EX-PIT POSITION TRANSFER REQUEST FORM (&#61505;Ex-Pit&#61504;) - Ex Pit 
forms may be used only to transfer previously cleared contracts between CMs.  
Problem trades (those which have not cleared prior to expiration day), must 
be corrected on the on-line trade entry system under the direct supervision 
of Trade Audits.  The Ex-Pit form must be submitted not later than 3:30 PM.

 *****
A) At approximately 4:15 PM, two PRELIMINARY reports of the expiration 
process will be available for distribution at the Nymex Clearing Department:

1. OPTION EXPIRATION REPORT AND CONFIRMATION - The purpose of this report is 
to project the CM&#61501;s present position going into the expiration based 
upon the transactions which have already been submitted to Clearing.  CMs 
should review and modify their adjusted gross positions as of 
close-of-business on the business day prior to expiration.  Further 
adjustments may be submitted not later than 5:00 PM.  The projected ending 
gross positions will reflect transactions accepted or rejected for clearance 
on expiration night, inclusive of Ex-Pit, H/C and OPRR transactions which 
have been submitted to Clearing prior to 3:30 PM, and trade information 
submitted to COMEX prior to 3:45 PM.  Normally, this report will also reflect 
manually submitted Exercise and Abandonment instructions, the projected 
number of exercises and maximum potential assignments for each strike price, 
the type of exercise (manual or automatic), whether the strike is In, At or 
Out of the money, and the exerc!
is!
e value associated therewith based on settlement prices established by COMEX 
on the day of expiration.

2. TRANSACTION LISTING - This listing will include in detail all expiring 
option trades submitted to COMEX prior to 3:45 PM on expiration day, and all 
H/C, ExPit, OPRR and E/A transactions submitted to Clearing Prior to 3:30 PM.

Please note: Trade information reflected on the option expiration report and 
transaction listing are trades submitted only. To inquire whether trades have 
matched, each CM must review the trade reports provided by COMEX&#61501;s 
On-Line Trade Entry (&#61505;OLTE&#61504;) system.

B) At approximately 5:30 PM, FINAL reports of the expiration process, 
including all submissions to Clearing and trade information submitted to 
COMEX made by 5:00 PM, will be available for distribution at the Nymex 
Clearing Department.

C) At 5:45 PM, Preliminary In The Money Abandonment and Out Of The Money 
Exercise information will be announced on Fast Facts.

D) At Approximately 7:30 PM, a Final Notice of Exercise/Assignments will be 
available in each CM&#61501;s lockbox located at the Nymex Clearing 
Department.  Each CM, which has exercised or been assigned one or more 
options will receive a separate statement showing exercises and/or 
assignments for each option series.  Please check this statement carefully.  
Although long options positions in-the-money by one tick or more will be 
automatically exercised, not all short option positions will be assigned if 
there are any options manually abandoned at such strike prices.  Please note 
that there also may be some at or out-of-the money options being exercised.

E) At approximately 9:00 PM, the final set of clearing sheets will be 
available in each CM&#61501;s lockbox located at the Nymex Clearing 
Department.

It is strongly recommended that each CM have a representative(s) that is 
properly trained to handle the option expiration process available beginning 
at 4:15 PM and who will receive the CM&#61501;s reports at the specific 
times.  It is solely the responsibility of the CM to review these reports and 
to notify the Clearing staff immediately of any discrepancies.

To obtain the exact time of the availability for each report, clearing 
members should call (212) 513-7405, access code 702.  The announcement time 
will occur &#61490; hour prior to availability.

Attached please find a Clearing Member Procedure Summary for ease of 
reference.  Please contact John Ramos at (212) 299-2142 (Members 001-500) or 
Mel Garcia at (212) 299-2144 (members 501-999) if you have any questions.

OPTION EXPIRATION PROCESSING CLEARING MEMBER PROCEDURE SUMMARY

Time: 3:30 PM
Activity: Expits, H/C transfers, Option Position Reduction and 
Exercise/Abandon notices
Event: Submission to Clearing cutoff time.
Notes: Final cutoff for Expits and H/C tranfers

Time: 3:45 PM
Activity: Call Fast Facts to obtain availability time of Preliminary Option 
Expiration Reports.
Event: Fast Facts notice of Availability

Time: 4:15 PM
Activity: Preliminary option expiration reports available to clearing members 
at NYMEX Clearing Department

Time: 5:00 PM
Activity: Options Position Reduction, Exercise/Abandon notices and Gross 
Position Adjustments
Event: Submission to Clearing Cutoff Time
Notes: Final cutoff for Option Position Reduction, Exercise/Abandon notices 
and Gross Position Adjustments

Time: 5:05 PM
Activity: Call Fast Facts to obtain availability time of Final Preliminary 
Option expiration Reports
Event: Fast Facts notice of Availability

Time: 5:30 PM
Activity: Final Preliminary option expiration reports available to clearing 
members at NYMEX Clearing Department.

Time: 5:45 PM
Activity: Call Fast Facts to obtain Preliminary In the Money Abandonment and 
Out of the Money Exercise Information
Event Fast Facts notice of information
Notes: New Event

Time: 6:00 PM
Activity: Corrections to previously Submitted Adjustments or Notices
Event: Correction period cutoff time (30 minutes after final preliminary 
report is distributed)
Notes: Final cutoff for corrections

Time: 7:00 PM
Activity: Call Fast Facts to obtain availability of final expiring option 
position and Exercise/Assignment report
Event: Fast Facts notice of Availability

Time: 7:30 PM
Activity: Final expirating options position and Exercise/Assignment report 
available in clearing member's lockbox at NYMEX Clearing Department

Time: 8:30 PM
Activity: Call Fast Facts to obtain availability of final clearing reports.
Event: Fast Facts notice of Availability

Time: 9:00 PM
Activity: Final clearing reports available in clearing member's lockbox at 
NYMEX Clearing Department.

Please contact John Ramos at (212) 299-2142 (Members 001-500) or Mel Garcia 
at (212) 299-2144 (members 501-999) if you have any questions.



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