News and Events

Deal Enhances Company’s Futures Product Offering

CHICAGO, IL, June 25, 2008 – optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (NasdaqGS: OXPS) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Open E Cry, LLC, for approximately $18 million, plus additional consideration based upon future performance. The Company anticipates the transaction to close on July 1, 2008. Open E Cry, based in Powell, OH, is an innovative futures broker offering direct access futures trading through its proprietary software platform, OEC Trader. The Open E Cry platform contains a set of complex systems and order routing technology specifically designed to meet the standards of high volume commodities and futures traders. End user access is achieved through a downloadable software interface or through a proprietary API.

“We believe the acquisition of Open E Cry further enhances optionsXpress’ position as the premiere derivatives-focused brokerage,” said David Fisher, Chief Executive Officer of optionsXpress. “We anticipate significant growth in the futures industry, and this acquisition provides us with a world-class platform to expand our market presence by appealing to institutions and highly active traders.”

Open E Cry was formed in 2002 by its president and founder, Rick Tomsic. With an emphasis on speed, reliability and ease of use, Open E Cry has developed a platform that caters to the specific needs of high volume futures traders.

“We think optionsXpress is a great fit for Open E Cry. Bringing our companies together creates a terrific array of tools and products for all types of investors,” commented Mr. Tomsic. “This business combination provides a tremendous opportunity for us to accelerate Open E Cry’s growth by leveraging optionsXpress’ robust infrastructure.”

Transaction Terms:

Open E Cry’s members will receive approximately $13 million of cash consideration and $5 million in stock plus additional consideration based upon future performance. Mr. Tomsic has agreed to a multi-year employment agreement. optionsXpress expects the transaction to have no significant impact on 2008 earnings per share.

Open E Cry Financial and Operating Metrics:

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2007, Open E Cry generated approximately $8 million in revenue and $1 million in pretax income. Year-to-date 2008 revenues have grown over 100% from the same period last year. Key operating metrics for 2007 were:
   • Ending open accounts of approximately 2,100
   • Daily average revenue trades of approximately 5,500 (DARTs)
   • Ending customer assets of $36.8 million

About optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. provides innovative securities brokerage products and services for investor education, strategy evaluation and trade execution. Through its subsidiaries optionsXpress, Inc., an online brokerage, and brokersXpress LLC, an online broker dealer for investment representatives and advisors, the company offers a wide range of investor tools, outstanding customer service via Live Help chat service and competitive commissions. optionsXpress has been named the top online securities brokerage by Kiplinger's Personal Finance (2006) and by Barron's in its last four annual surveys (2003 to 2006).

More information can be found in the Investor Relations section of optionsXpress' website at http://www.optionsxpress.com/investor.

Safe Harbor

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks. We urge you to carefully consider these risks in evaluating the information in this press release, including risks related to general economic conditions, regulatory developments, the competitive landscape, the volume of securities trading generally or by our customers specifically and other risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date of this release. We undertake no ongoing obligation to update these statements.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Investor Inquiries:
Victoria Paris
Ashton Partners
(312) 553-6715

Media Inquiries:
Josh Inglis
Strategics, Inc.
(312) 346-2007

Chicago, IL April 14, 2008 – DMAXX, LLC, a leading supplier of middle and back office systems to institutional commodity trading advisors and Open E Cry, LLC, an industry-leading direct access futures brokerage firm, and pioneering developer of futures trading technology, today announced a strategic alliance to provide seamless integration between their platforms. The resulting solution will provide the institutional CTA the first fully integrated, straight-through processing operating system, encompassing the front, middle, and back office functions, tailored specifically to institutional CTAs with managed accounts.

The combination of Open E Cry's industry-leading, global direct access futures trading network and their OEC Trader platform with DMAXX's fully-integrated middle and back office software, TheBooks®, provides un-paralleled automation to the alternative investment manager. The resulting platform provides electronic and pit market access, dynamic block allocations, multi clearer trade routing, position management, broker reconciliation, risk management, performance accounting and reporting, as a single, fully integrated solution.

Discretionary and systematic traders will find the resulting solution delivers an operating platform not previously available to the institutional futures trader. The functionality to seamlessly combine long and short term algorithmic trading along side of discretionary screen trading into the middle and back office functions will now be available off the shelf to the institutional CTA.

About DMAXX, LLC

DMAXX, LLC has been providing Futures Trading and Accounting software and services to members of the Managed Futures industry since 1994. Our flagship product, TheBooks®, is a comprehensive, scalable application tailored to the needs of the alternative investment advisor with managed accounts. Our years of experience, product functionality, and dedication to customer service has made us the vendor of choice by institutional CTAs worldwide for more that fourteen years.

About Open E Cry, LLC

Open E Cry, LLC is a direct access FCM that offers online trading for both electronic and pit markets through our proprietary software. We have developed a set of complex systems and order routing technology specifically designed to meet the high standards of CTAs, hedge funds, FCMs, Prop Shops, Arcades and other high volume commodities and futures traders. This technology can be accessed through our industry leading trading front end, OEC Trader, or through direct access to our API. Our focus is to provide the best execution possible to ensure maximum speed and reliability, while minimizing total transaction costs.

Open E Cry continues to grow its global connections with direct market access to one of Europe's largest commodities markets.

Open E Cry, LLC, an industry-leading direct access futures brokerage firm, and pioneering developer of futures trading technology, today announced that they have expanded their global direct market access to include Euronext.liffe London and Euronext.liffe Paris. According to Open E Cry President, Rick Tomsic, "Our goal is to be the leader in global futures trading… by expanding our direct market access to Euronext.liffe, we are another step closer".

Open E Cry is committed to providing their clients with the fastest data and trade executions. Open E Cry currently provides true direct market access to CME, CBOT, EUREX, NYBOT, NYMEX, KCBT, MGEX and ICE through their dynamic trading platform, OEC Trader. "Our integrated trading platform, OEC Trader, is currently an industry leader in functionality, and we are constantly adding to our software's functionality… we are committed, in the same way, to expanding our direct access to global markets", said Tomsic. Open E Cry plans to include even more global exchanges including SGX, SFE, and HKFE through the fourth quarter of 2007.

About Euronext.liffe

Euronext.liffe lists a diverse range of commodity futures and options which includes Cocoa, Robusta Coffee, Raw Sugar, White Sugar, Feed Wheat, Milling Wheat, Rapeseed, Corn and Rapeseed Oil. Modeled after the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) began in 1982. In the 1990's, LIFFE merged with the London Traded Options Market (LTOM), and later with the London Commodity Exchange (LCE), and increased their product range to include equity options and soft and agricultural commodity contracts. Euronext acquired LIFFE, in January 2002, and joined the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Lisbon. Open E Cry now offers direct market access to Euronext.liffe London and Euronext.liffe Paris.

Open E Cry, LLC currently offers fast and highly reliable direct access to:

• CME
• eCBOT
• EUREX
• ICE
• NYMEX
• NYBOT
• Kansas City
• Minneapolis

In an effort to expand global direct access and enhance our position as the leader in global futures trading, Open E Cry LLC will be releasing direct connections to the following exchanges in Q3 2007:

• LIFFE – London and all sub components including:
• Paris
• Amsterdam
• SGX – Singapore
• SFE – Sydney
• HKFE – Hong Kong
• DME - Dubai

The Open E Cry data and infrastructure has been fully interfaced to Collective2's (www.collective2.com) system trading platform. Open E Cry now provides a hands-free / software-free means of auto trading any futures system available from the Collective2 site. Open E Cry also provides real-time visibility to your system generated trades as well as a market to market PNL.

The Open E Cry Order Server is now LIVE with NeoTicker (http://www.tickquest.com). NeoTicker is a real-time technical analysis platform focused on advanced technologies, robustness and scalability. Open E Cry now provides full data and execution services through the NeoTicker 4.x Platform. This LIVE Order Server is now available through TickQuest. As a TickQuest Partner, Open E Cry customers will also be eligible for a discount on the NeoTicker software.

The Open E Cry data and infrastructure has been fully interfaced to Collective2's (www.collective2.com) system trading platform. Open E Cry will provide a hands-free / software-free means of auto trading any futures system available from the Collective2 site. Open E Cry will also provide real-time visibility to your system generated trades as well as a market to market PNL. This interface is currently being Beta tested by both current OEC customers and Collective2 customers.

In the coming weeks, following the beta testing period, an announcement will be made on the general release of the full interface of Collective2 to the Open E Cry connectivity and functionality. Please contact us with any additional questions or if you are interested in participating in the Beta test.

The Open E Cry data and infrastructure has been fully interfaced to SmartQuant's (www.smartquant.com) flagship products Open Quant and QuantDEVELOPER institutional high end solution (www.quanthouse.com). OpenQuant is an Automated Trading System (ATS) Development Platform for retail individual traders and designed around the well known SmartQuant Financial Data Analysis and Trading Framework. QuantDEVELOPER from Quant House is part of the QuantFACTORY suite of products together with QuantDATACENTER and QuantENGINE and is designed for leading financial institutions all around the globe. The framework has been under development since 1997 and is certainly one of the most reliable and performant Integrated Development Environment avaible at present on the market. Open E Cry will provide data and execution functionality in support of this platform. The interface is currently in Beta test with Open E Cry, SmartQuant and Quant House customer.

In the coming weeks, following the beta testing period, an announcement will be made on the general release of the full interface of OpenQuant and QuantDEVELOPER to the Open E Cry connectivity and functionality. Please contact us with any additional questions or if you are interested in participating in the Beta test.

The Open E Cry order server is now in Beta test with NeoTicker (www.tickquest.com) . NeoTicker is a real-time technical analysis platform focused on advanced technologies, robustness and scalability. This Beta test includes current customers of both TickQuest and Open E cry. Open E Cry will provide full data and execution services through the NeoTicker 4.x Platform. As a NeoTicker Partner, Open E Cry customers will also be eligible for a discount on the NeoTicker software.

In the coming weeks, following the beta testing period, an announcement will be made on the general release of the full interface of NeoTicker to the Open E Cry connectivity and functionality. Please contact us with any additional questions or if you are interested in participating in the Beta test.

Open E Cry LLC now offers TRUE DMA to CME Globex & NYMEX through the combination of OEC Trader and the high performance and ultra low latency solution CME LNet. CME LNet is a solution offering 40mb redundant fiber connections to the CME Globex platform via specified collocation facilities.

CME LNet is expected to decrease network latency times for order entry by 10 to 15 milliseconds (compared to a "standard CME connection" through a 20 Mbit/s line using external line providers). With this setup in our Equinix datacenter in Chicago, Open E Cry is now able to provide the fastest possible Direct Market Access (DMA) to the CME enabling the industry's best support of algorithmic trading engines written to the OEC API and spread traders.

RightEdge (http://www.rightedgesystems.com) can be used to develop systems utilizing the Open E Cry direct exchange data feed and order execution platform. Open E Cry, LLC is a supported broker for auto executions making RightEdge a stand-alone platform for system development and auto executions for Open E Cry, LLC customers.

RightEdge by Yye Software is a trading system development platform based on modern, compiled languages. This platform is equipped with a cutting edge integrated development environment (IDE) that includes advanced charting features, data management, and a pluggable architecture that allows for a high level of scalability and customization. RightEdge caters to system developers that demand high performance systems utilizing industrial strength data storage for high frequency data. Once a system is developed, RightEdge can backtest systems, make optimization recommendations, and ultimately interface with supported brokers to execute systems live. Systems are executed in a truly event driven fashion allowing for the same code to be run in a backtest, simulation or live scenario.

Additional information coming on our "Third Party Software" section of our website.

Open E Cry Customers to receive an instant 20% discount on Tradelog Software if accessed through http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog/?site=oec

Open E Cry LLC has long offered the TradeLog export from our reports module to help in easily managing your tax information. As a result of this relationship TradeLog will be offering all Open E Cry customers an instant 20% discount on the list price of the TradeLog software.