Revenues of $61.7 million, in line with the second quarter of 2008

Net income of $16.1 million, or $0.28 per diluted share

Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) of 45,100, an increase of 21% year-over-year

Net new account growth of 9,000 during the quarter, resulting in 337,300 customer accounts, a 16% increase year-over-year

Results reflect the completion of the acquisition of Optionetics on May 4, 2009, including one-time transaction-related expenses of approximately $0.4 million.

"The ability of our customers to invest in a broad range of products in one account led to resiliency in customer assets and allowed us to benefit from record trading demand for equities. The result was an increase in earnings over the first quarter of this year despite continued low short-term interest rates and a weak macroeconomic environment," remarked David Fisher, Chief Executive Officer of optionsXpress. "In addition, during the quarter, we closed our acquisition of Optionetics and have made good initial progress in the early stages of integrating our brokerage marketing into their educational offerings."

For the second quarter, total DARTs were 45,100, up 21% from 37,200 during the second quarter of 2008, and down 4% from 46,800 for the first quarter of 2009. Institutional DARTs were 11,900 during the second quarter of 2009. Trades per account on an annualized basis were 34, flat with the second quarter of 2008 and down slightly from 35 in the first quarter of 2009. Also during the second quarter, approximately 10,000 people attended Optionetics' live events.

Total net revenues increased slightly over the second quarter of 2008 and were up 25% when compared to the first quarter of 2009. Resulting net income was $16.1 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, a 31% decrease from the $23.3 million reported in the second quarter of 2008.

"Average commissions per trade increased 11%, or $1.45, over the first quarter due to an increased percentage of retail trades and a higher retail average commission per trade. In addition, customer assets, a key long-term driver, are up 17% in 2009, giving us confidence that we will be well positioned when interest rates rise and retail options trading activity improves," commented Adam DeWitt, Chief Financial Officer of optionsXpress. "Finally, our recent acquisition, Optionetics, performed as expected following the transaction, close to breakeven."

Outlook

Mr. Fisher concluded, "In this challenging macroeconomic environment, we continue to invest aggressively in our business by developing innovative product offerings, such as our new mobile application and Xtend2, our new active trader platform, while keeping an eye towards minimizing operational costs. Our clean balance sheet provides further flexibility in pursuing additional product development initiatives as well as acquisition opportunities. We believe this strategy combining prudent investment with operational efficiency will enable us to deliver good results in the near-term and sustained shareholder value creation in the long-term."

Conference Call

A conference call will be broadcast live on Friday, July 24, 2009, at 8:00 a.m. Central Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time) at http://www.optionsxpress.com/investor. An online replay will be available approximately two hours after the call and can be accessed in the Investor Relations' Calendar of Events portion of the website.

About optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

optionsXpress Holdings, Inc., a pioneer in equity options and futures trading, offers an innovative suite of online brokerage services for investor education, strategy evaluation and trade execution. optionsXpress Holdings subsidiaries include optionsXpress, Inc., a retail online brokerage specializing in options and futures, brokersXpress, LLC, an online trading and reporting platform for independent investment professionals, and Open E Cry, LLC, an innovative futures broker offering direct access futures trading for high volume commodities and futures traders through its proprietary software platform, and Optionetics, Inc, a leading provider of investment education services, including live seminars, proprietary software analytics, online and offline educational products and individual coaching to over 40,000 potential investors annually in 12 countries.

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.

                                                                                                        optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.                                                                          Consolidated Statements of Operations                                                                 In thousands, except per share data                                                                   (Unaudited)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Three Months Ended                                                                                    June          June          Change                                                                    30, 2009      30, 2008      $             %         Revenues:                                                                                              Commissions                                      $42,008       $40,959       $1,049        3    %     Other brokerage related revenue                  7,108         8,214         (1,106    )   (13  %)    Interest revenue and fees                        4,489         11,905        (7,416    )   (62  %)    Interest expense                                 (61       )   (382      )   321           (84  %)    Net interest revenue and fees                    4,428         11,523        (7,095    )   (62  %)    Education revenues                               7,234         -             7,234         n/a        Other income                                     937           928           9             1    %    Net revenues                                      $61,715       $61,624       $91           0    %                                                                                                          Expenses:                                                                                              Compensation and benefits                        $10,434       $7,073        $3,361        48   %     Brokerage, clearing and other related expenses   8,047         5,685         2,362         42   %     Brokerage advertising                            5,005         5,031         (26       )   (1   %)    Education marketing and fulfillment              4,792         -             4,792         n/a        Depreciation and amortization                    2,298         1,767         531           30   %     Other general and administrative                 5,901         5,066         835           16   %    Total expenses                                    $36,477       $24,622       $11,855       48   %                                                                                                          Income before income taxes                        25,238        37,002        (11,764   )   (32  %)   Income taxes                                      9,165         13,654        (4,489    )   (33  %)   Net income                                        $16,073       $23,348       ($7,275   )   (31  %)                                                                                                         Basic earnings per share                          $0.28         $0.39         ($0.11    )   (28  %)   Diluted earnings per share                        $0.28         $0.39         ($0.11    )   (28  %)                                                                                                         Weighted average shares                                                                               outstanding - basic                               57,832        60,025        (2,193    )   (4   %)   Weighted average shares                                                                               outstanding - diluted                             57,988        60,175        (2,187    )   (4   %)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Six Months Ended                                                                                      June          June          Change                                                                    30, 2009      30, 2008      $             %         Revenues:                                                                                              Commissions                                      $80,097       $79,888       $209          0    %     Other brokerage related revenue                  13,405        15,692        (2,287    )   (15  %)    Interest revenue and fees                        8,869         26,278        (17,409   )   (66  %)    Interest expense                                 (123      )   (1,166    )   1,043         (89  %)    Net interest revenue and fees                    8,746         25,112        (16,366   )   (65  %)    Education revenues                               7,234         -             7,234         n/a        Other income                                     1,527         1,697         (170      )   (10  %)   Net revenues                                      $111,009      $122,389      ($11,380  )   (9   %)                                                                                                         Expenses:                                                                                              Compensation and benefits                        $18,808       $13,732       $5,076        37   %     Brokerage, clearing and other related expenses   15,237        10,703        4,534         42   %     Brokerage advertising                            10,794        9,905         889           9    %     Education marketing and fulfillment              4,792         -             4,792         n/a        Depreciation and amortization                    4,290         3,445         845           25   %     Other general and administrative                 10,655        10,103        552           5    %    Total expenses                                    $64,576       $47,888       $16,688       35   %                                                                                                          Income before income taxes                        46,433        74,501        (28,068   )   (38  %)   Income taxes                                      16,804        27,364        (10,560   )   (39  %)   Net income                                        $29,629       $47,137       ($17,508  )   (37  %)                                                                                                         Basic earnings per share                          $0.51         $0.77         ($0.26    )   (34  %)   Diluted earnings per share                        $0.51         $0.77         ($0.26    )   (34  %)                                                                                                         Weighted average shares                                                                               outstanding - basic                               58,146        61,303        (3,157    )   (5   %)   Weighted average shares                                                                               outstanding - diluted                             58,266        61,476        (3,210    )   (5   %)    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

                                                                                                     optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.                                                                       Consolidated Balance Sheets                                                                        In thousands                                                                                       (Unaudited)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Period Ended                                                                                       June 30,     December 31,   Change                                                                 2009         2008           $             %           Assets:                                                                                             Cash and cash equivalents                   $118,434     $114,450       $3,984        3      %     Cash and investments segregated                                                                    in compliance with federal regulations      642,476      427,669        214,807       50     %     Receivables from brokerage customers, net   126,585      137,502        (10,917   )   (8     %)    Receivables from brokers, dealers and                                                              clearing organizations                      24,111       15,621         8,490         54     %     Investments in securities                   88,138       89,937         (1,799    )   (2     %)    Deposits with clearing organizations        72,189       108,409        (36,220   )   (33    %)    Fixed assets, net                           13,970       12,979         991           8      %     Goodwill                                    81,722       44,234         37,488        85     %     Other intangible assets, net                8,544        4,569          3,975         87     %     Other assets                                19,053       16,963         2,090         12     %     Total assets                                $1,195,222   $972,333       $222,889      23     %                                                                                                       Liabilities and stockholders' equity:                                                                                                                                                                 Liabilities                                                                                         Payables to brokerage customers             $855,232     $675,872       $179,360      27     %     Payables to brokers, dealers and clearing                                                          organizations                               168          293            (125      )   (43    %)    Accounts payable and accrued liabilities    49,469       27,848         21,621        78     %     Deferred revenue                            8,480        -              8,480         n/a          Current and deferred income taxes           285          25             260           1,040  %     Total liabilities                           913,634      704,038        209,596       30     %                                                                                                       Stockholders' equity                         281,588      268,295        13,293        5      %                                                                                                        Total liabilities and stockholders'                                                                equity                                      $1,195,222   $972,333       $222,889      23     %     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

 Exception caught in main. 

                                                                                       optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.                                                         Segment Information                                                                  In thousands                                                                                                                                                                                                  Three Months Ended      Six Months Ended                                             June         June       June          June                                           30, 2009     30, 2008   30, 2009      30, 2008   Revenue                                                                               Brokerage Services                 $54,477      $61,624    $103,771      $122,389    Education                          7,304        -          7,304         -           Eliminations                       (66      )   -          (66       )   -           Revenue                            $61,715      $61,624    $111,009      $122,389                                                                                        Income/(Loss) before income taxes                                                     Brokerage Services                 $25,514      $37,002    $46,709       $74,501     Education                          (276     )   -          (276      )   -           Income before income taxes         $25,238      $37,002    $46,433       $74,501     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

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