[May 13, 2013]

optionMONSTER® Holdings, Inc. Wins 2013 Illinois Technology Association "Outstanding Technology Development" CityLIGHTS Award

optionMONSTER Holdings, Inc., the parent of tradeMONSTER, the online brokerage industry's leader in user experience, has been honored with a 2013 Illinois Technology Association (ITA) CityLIGHTS Award in the "Outstanding Technology Development" category. The venerable award goes to the ''company or organization that utilizes or developed a technology tool, process or service that accelerated growth.''

Amongst the reasons optionMONSTER Holdings received the award was the recent launch of tradeMONSTER Mobile, their markedly innovative and patent pending mobile trading app. With tradeMONSTER Mobile, the first and only proprietary mobile trading app built on HTML5, the existing user experience of tradeMONSTER's main trading platform has been closely replicated on mobile platforms.

The 14^th annual CityLIGHTS Award winners were announced May 9, 2013 at the ITA's (News - Alert) Awards Gala held at Union Station and attended by industry leading companies, investors, civic leaders, and policymakers.

Dirk Mueller, co-founder and CEO of optionMONSTER Holdings, Inc. commented, "We are honored to have received this award and thank the ITA, its members and the judges for their assessment. It represents the strength and extraordinary determination of our technology team and all of our employees to put professional-grade trading tools into the hands of our retail investor customers at tradeMONSTER. The second half of 2013 will result in even more enhancements to our platform and a continued push towards "Anywhere, Anytime" trading and investing on any device."

Companies representing 32 finalists report the addition of over 2,000 positions in Illinois for the 2013 calendar year. Positions are full-time positions across functional areas and skill levels with over 600 positions filled to date. Multi-national companies were excluded from these results.

"The 2013 CityLIGHTS Awards reognize some of the leading accomplishments in Illinois' technology industry, celebrating growth, talent, and visibility," said Fred Hoch, President, ITA. "We are particularly proud to share the economic growth impact these finalists are having on Illinois' economy. The finalists represent just a small portion of Illinois' growing technology industry and ITA is honored to support the growth of the industry."

With the exception of the CityLIGHTS Award, which was determined solely by the ITA Board of Directors, winners in the remaining eight award categories were determined by a composite score of community voting and the ITA's panel of judges. CTO Sanjib Sahoo, was an ITA Finalist for "Technologist of the Year" at the awards.

About optionMONSTER Holdings Inc.

Co-founded in 2006 by Jon ('DRJ') and Pete Najarian and Dirk Mueller, a group of professional traders, financial executives, and CNBC contributors, optionMONSTER Holdings provides brokerage services through its subsidiary tradeMONSTER at www.trademonster.com and financial news, analysis and education services through its subsidiary optionMONSTER at www.optionmonster.com.

The vision of optionMONSTER Holdings is to provide best of breed information and tools intended to narrow the gap between self-directed and institutional investing, by providing retail investors with the best options content (including education) in the industry and an online brokerage platform, which provides an amazing user experience "Anywhere, Anytime," and gives any investor all the necessary professional grade tools to trade successfully in the markets.

About tradeMONSTER

Rated "Best for Options Traders", tradeMONSTER (www.trademonster.com) continues to set a new standard of excellence and innovation in the online brokerage industry. tradeMONSTER was the first online broker to deploy a streaming desktop-like trading experience in a web-browser, featuring professional grade tools in a dynamic and customizable interface combined with integrated investor education, transparent commissions and an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated customer service team. Additionally, tradeMONSTER is offering a groundbreaking mobile experience on all major mobile platforms and devices through tradeMONSTER Mobile. tradeMONSTER's technology team prides itself on constant customer driven innovation and currently has been granted several patents with numerous patents pending for its technology and one-of-kind investment tools embedded on the tradeMONSTER platform. All securities and investments are offered through tradeMONSTER. Member FINRA/SIPC/NFA.

About the Illinois Technology Association (News - Alert)

The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is the driving force behind Illinois' vibrant technology industry. ITA's extensive lineup of curated member programs and services address three key critical areas: growth, talent, and visibility. By leveraging the connections and expertise of its more than 600 member companies representing a workforce that is 50,000 strong and growing, the ITA provides the ecosystem growing technology companies need to succeed. Contact the ITA at [email protected], follow the discussion on Twitter (News - Alert) at @itabuzz or #ITACityLIGHTS, and visit www.illinoistech.org to find out more about how ITA supports the growth of the local industry.

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