- Electronic Exchange's Early Opening Coincides with European Trading Hours,
                  Creating More Open, Transparent Markets -

CHICAGO, April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx), the world's largest all-electronic stock exchange, today initiated its plan to open for trading at 4 AM Eastern Time for all U.S. listed and OTC stocks, following Securities and Exchange Commission approval.

The earlier open coincides with European trading hours. By providing available access to liquidity in U.S. listed stocks during their trading hours, European investors can benefit from the order interaction and price discovery available on ArcaEx in the opening session. The early open is expected to be particularly important for trading ADRs and ETFs.

"Extending our trading hours to bring fairer and more transparent alternatives to the European trading community is a natural progression for ArcaEx as a fully-electronic market," said Mike Cormack, President of the Archipelago Exchange. "Since ArcaEx already had an earlier opening time than other U.S. exchanges and a process for handling orders before 9:30 am ET, extending the early session by four hours essentially required relatively minor systems changes to accommodate this expanded window for the trading of U.S. equities."

ArcaEx will disseminate quote and trading information via the consolidated tape, and ArcaEx's regulator -- the Pacific Exchange -- will provide regulatory oversight during the early open period. As a result of the earlier opening, ArcaEx will run the opening auction at 4 AM ET.

About ArcaEx

Archipelago Holdings Inc. (PCX: AX) operates the Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx(R)), the first totally open all-electronic stock exchange in the United States to trade Nasdaq-listed equity securities and exchange listed equity securities, including those traded on the New York Stock Exchange(R), American Stock Exchange(R) and Pacific Exchange(R). ArcaEx offers corporate issuers and investors the advantages of meeting directly, without intermediaries within a fully electronic and totally transparent environment. ArcaEx is a facility of and regulated by the Pacific Exchange, a registered exchange. ArcaEx was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2001 and ArcaEx began trading operations in March 2002. The Archipelago ECN, a precursor to ArcaEx, was one of the four original ECNs, formed in December 1996 with Townsend Analytics. For more information please visit http://www.arcaex.com.

Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on Archipelago's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Archipelago's actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. There can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause Archipelago's results to differ materially from current expectations include: general economic and business conditions, industry trends, competitive conditions, regulatory developments as well as other risks or factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, including its Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2004 which is available on the Company's website at http://www.archipelago.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except for any obligation to disclose material information under the Federal securities laws, Archipelago undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Archipelago Exchange

CONTACT: Margaret Nagle of Archipelago Exchange, +1-312-442-7083/