[thingylab]

Wow wow wow. This whole "prices are pinned around a strike" story does not make any sense.

First, a quick search on bloomberg reveals that stocks belonging to the S&P 500 (with liquid options) do not tend to close at exactly the most liquid option strike price on expiry dates, so a close at 500.00 is not "expected" for AAPL, or any other stock, today.

Second, if you'd take 30 seconds to look up what an option is, you'd discover that option can be either calls or puts (options to buy or sell, respectively) so when the spot (market) price of AAPL is 495 at expiry, the 500 call is worthless, but not the 500 put is not. Third, the market for options is not the only one responsible for the spot price, if only because a lot of people actually trade AAPL stocks independently of AAPL options.

Finally, most people who trade options do not give a damn about the spot price, instead they care about the (implied) volatility. Roughly, it means your profit/loss on an option position is largely immune to the moves in the underlying stock price (just look at people hedging variance swaps).