Notice to Members
Notice No. 540
12/07/2007
Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members
The expiration date for the January 2008 options contract for Crude Oil (LOF08) is Thursday, December 13, 2007.

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 3:15 PM 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 Clearing 21® and Clearport® TMS. No Option Expiration Reports will be provided. The following screens will assist you through the Option Expiration process:

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

OPTION EXPIRATION INQUIRY (Clearing 21)
Contains position, trade, exercise and do not exercise submission information for each option series.

SINGLE POSITION MAINTENANCE (clearing 21)
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 (TMS)
Contains all trade and position transfers "TO" your firm and the status of each transfer.

REVIEW SUBMITTED TRANSFERS (TMS)
Contains all trade and position transfer "FROM" your firm and the status of each transfer.

EXERCISE NOTICE SUBMISSION (Clearing 21)
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number of long positions you wish to exercise.

DO NOT EXERCISE SUBMISSION (Clearing 21)
Contains your available long position and an input field to enter the number of long positions you wish to abandon.

POSITION CHANGE SUBMISSION (Clearing 21)
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 PM. Any PCS input via transmission for that contract series will be disregarded.

ALL POSITIONS ARE DEEMED FINAL (Clearing 21)
Upon completion of all PCS input, all positions will be deemed final.

EXERCISE/ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION (Clearing 21)
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 the Clearing Department 24 Hour Service. 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.



CLEARING DEPARTMENT 24 HOUR INFORMATION SERVICE
Clearing Members should call the Clearing Department 24 Hour Infomation Service at 212-299-2309 for 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 NYMEX Information System and/or E-mail messages and the sequence in which they will be announced are:
Standard Event Messages
Approximate Time of Message Availability
Usual Event Time
Clearing Department 24 Hour Infomation Service (F)
E-mail (E)
Both (B)
Announce Out-of-the-Money Exercise and In-the-Money Do Not Exercise Submissions
4:45 PM
4:45 PM
F
Announce Final Input to C21 Cutoff Times
6:30 PM
6:45 PM
E
All Positions Are Deemed Final
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
F
Announce Exercise/Assignment Information Availability on the Single Position Maintenance Windows
7:30 PM
7:30 PM
B
Announce Expected Clearing Process Completion Time
8:30 PM
11:00 PM
F
Note: The times appearing in the Usual Event Time column are based on normal operational conditions and could vary.
Should you have any questions or require any further information, please contact exchangeinfo@nymex.com