> Don't you mean option seller/writer? If you buy an option (and therefore are an owner), you have the right but not the obligation to exercise it. No, meant t

> Don't you mean option seller/writer? If you buy an option (and therefore are an owner), you have the right but not the obligation to exercise it. No, meant the buyer, alot of professionals want their exposure to be hedged out so they don't want to end up owning any shares after expiry so they need to be short shares for any calls that will end up in the money. So as an option pins the underlier close to the strike price the option holder ends up buy/selling to hedge out their delta exposure to zero. > Right, but that's not any different than any other sort of leverage? eg. buying stocks on margin to drive up the price. Not really, The tail waiving the dog effect occurs when a derivative instrument that is priced off an underlier actually ends up moving the underlier itself. Leverage is a different animal. If you lever up 2x you're just buying twice as much. When you unwind you you sell 2x as much. Its still the underlying moving itself and not being affected by any other instrument.