Export by reference

I confess, I've never really understood this. I mean, I get the idea: you're exporting pointers to the actual media, not the media itself and that's supposed to result in a much smaller file. But I must not understand how to do it.

For example, I select a sequence and go File>Export>QuickTime Movie and
Setting: Current Settings
Include: Audio and Video
Markers: None
and leave both the Recompress All Frames and Make Movie Self-Contained checkboxes UNCHECKED.

Is that not the correct method?

I've done it that way and also tried it with the Make Movie Self-Contained box checked and both files came out precisely the same size.

What am I missing?

TIA,

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA