New York -- The American Stock Exchange® (Amex®), the pioneer in Exchange
Traded Funds and a leader in equity and index options, will begin
disseminating on Tuesday a new volatility index -- QQV -- based on options
on the Nasdaq-100 Tracking StockSM (QQQ).

"The QQV index is an indicator of investor sentiment about the future
volatility of the QQQ, the Nasdaq-100 Tracking Stock," said Salvatore F.
Sodano, chairman and chief executive officer of the Amex. "It provides, for
the first time, a snapshot of investors' expectations about future
volatility of the 'New Economy' stocks."

The Amex's QQQ options have achieved enormous popularity among investors as
evidenced by rapid growth in trading volume. During calendar year 2000, QQQ
options were the most actively traded option on the Amex. Further, among all
the options traded on the nation's five options exchanges, QQQ ranked as the
second most active option. Of the three US-based options trading on the
Nasdaq-100 Index, QQQ is, by a huge margin, the most actively traded option.

The QQV will measure the implied volatility of a hypothetical
constant-maturity one-month, at-the-money option and will be expressed as an
annualized standard deviation of returns. For example, a QQV of 50 suggests
that investors expect that over the next year QQQ could be as much as 50
percent above or 50 percent below its current level. QQV will be updated
every 15 seconds and thus conveys a timely measure of shifts in investor
expectations throughout the trading day.

Tabulation of QQV began on Sept. 27, 2000. Since then, based on QQQ index
levels at the market close, QQV has ranged from a low of 42.86 to a high of
75.40. On an intra-day basis, QQV has been as high as 82.41.

Background on QQQ and QQQ Options

The American Stock Exchange introduced trading in QQQ, the Nasdaq-100
Tracking Stock, in March 1999. QQQ achieved rapid growth in trading and
continues to break new volume records as one of the Amex's most successful
new products. The American Stock Exchange introduced options on QQQ the same
day QQQ began trading.