Option pricing is the aspect of finance theory whose performativity has been examined most closely in the previous chapters. The fit between the BlackScholes-Merton model and empirical patterns of option prices was originally only approximate, but it improved rapidly after the model was published and adopted by market practitioners. There is no way of being certain that the improved fit was due to the practical adoption of the model: the year of its publication also saw the opening in Chicago of the first modern options exchange, and the development of organized options trading would have had an effect on patterns of prices quite independent of the model.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1153