Index arbitrage thus has the potential to create an objective link between index futures and stocks. The theoretical value of an index future has nothing to do with opinions as to whether the price of stocks will rise or fall; like the theoretical value of an option, it is imposed by arbitrage. Arbitrage, therefore, had the potential to stop index futures being "a figment of Melamed's imagination," yoking them firmly to the prices of the underlying stocks.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 781