An all-electronic equity derivatives exchange launched on February 6, 2004, as a joint effort by the Montreal Exchange, Boston Stock Exchange and Interactive Brokers Group to provide an alternative to existing options markets. Technical operations of the Boston Options Exchange (BOX) are handled by the Montreal Exchange.



The BOX was the first options exchange to offer price improvement to traders through a process called PIP, which stands for Price Improvement Period. Although all investors can be "PIPed," the investor must have a broker that is willing and able to offer a facilitation trade – a trade where the broker guarantees the first penny of price improvement. Because not all brokers offer this to their clients, some investors do not have access to the price improvement offered on the BOX.