Notice No. 02-77
March 19, 2002



TO:		All COMEX Division Members/Member Firms
All COMEX Division Clearing Members
All COMEX Division Floor Traders
All COMEX Division 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 April 2002 options contract for Copper (HXJ2)
and Aluminum (OAJ2) 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 on-line
trade entry ("OLTE") 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 April 2002 Copper and Aluminum Options Contracts will cease
at 1:00 P.M. and 1:10 p.m. respectively on March 25, 2002.  All Brokers and
Traders must inform their Clearing Members of their intentions to exercise
or abandon such Options by 3:00 P.M.

On Monday, March 25, 2002, all Brokers and Clearing Members must have a duly
authorized, On-Line Trade Entry ("OLTE") system trained representative
available until such time as the Exchange deems necessary.

NOTE:	After 3:30 P.M. all expiring option trade data must be inputted on
special "OLTE" 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 4:00 P.M.

After the Unmatched Trade Reports 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 Monday's submissions and processing will be
available on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2002.

In the event that you have any questions regarding these 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 ("OPC") - 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 A.M.

2.  	OPTIONS EXERCISE/ABANDONMENT REQUESTS FORM ("E/A") - 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 ("CM") 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 4:00 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's E/A forms.

3.	OPTION POSITION REDUCTION REQUEST FORM ("OPRR") - 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 4:00 PM.

4.	HOUSE/CUSTOMER POSITION TRANSFER REQUEST FORM ("H/C") - H/C forms
may be used only to transfer previously cleared contracts between a CM's
house and customer accounts.  Problem trades (those which have not cleared
prior to expiration day) must be corrected using COMEX's on-line trade entry
system under the direct supervision of the Trade Audits Department of COMEX
("Trade Audits").  The H/C form must be submitted not later than 2:30 PM.

5.	EX-PIT POSITION TRANSFER REQUEST FORM ("Ex-Pit") - 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 2:30 PM.

	*****
A)	At approximately 3:15 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'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 4:00 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 2:30 PM, and trade information
submitted to COMEX prior to 2:45 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 exercise 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 2:45 PM on expiration
day, and all H/C, ExPit, OPRR and E/A transactions submitted to Clearing
Prior to 2:30 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's
On-Line Trade Entry ("OLTE") system.

B)	At approximately 4:30 PM, FINAL reports of the expiration process,
including all submissions to Clearing and trade information submitted to
COMEX made by 4:00 PM, will be available for distribution at the NYMEX
Clearing Department.

C)	At 4:45 PM, Preliminary In The Money Abandonment and Out Of The
Money Exercise information will be announced on Fast Facts.

D)	At Approximately 6:30 PM, a Final Notice of Exercise/Assignments
will be available in each CM'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 7:30 PM, the final set of clearing sheets will be
available in each CM'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 3:15 PM and who will receive the CM'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) 301-4871, access code 701.  The announcement time
will occur 1/2 hour prior to availability.

Attached please find a Clearing Member Procedure Summary for ease of
reference.  Please contact Anthony DiBenedetto at (212) 299-2152 or John
Ramos at (212) 299-2142 if you have any questions.


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