When I export to LaTeX, the created LaTeX file contains \date{\today}.
However, I don't want it to show the date.  Using #+OPTIONS: date:nil
the LaTeX result will contain \date{} instead, which indeed hides the
date, but now there's empty space in place of the date when compiled to
a PDF document, which is undesirable.  As per the manual the argument <
to the OPTIONS keyword is supposed to "[t]oggle inclusion of time/date
active/inactive stamps (org-export-with-timestamps)".  Putting
#+OPTIONS: <:nil, however, has no effect at all; \date{\today} will
still end up in the LaTeX export.

Do I misunderstand the meaning of the argument <?  How can I prevent the
awkward space in the final PDF where the date would normally be?

Thank you!

Emacs  : GNU Emacs 26.2 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.8)
of 2019-04-12
Package: Org mode version 9.1.9 (release_9.1.9-65-g5e4542 @ /usr/share/emacs/26.2/lisp/org/)