tandempower

Well, think about it. If you do some analysis and figure out that you'll make less money on your automotive stocks if ride-sharing companies and other alternatives to car ownership grow, then it makes sense to (short) sell those companies to attempt to drive them out of business, i.e. by driving investors away from them out of fear they'll lose their money if they invest.

So there are people who want to invest in alternative transportation and help it grow, even if they won't make money at the same levels as by investing in the individual-car-ownership model of transportation; but they should be protected against others who want to intimidate them away from investing by crashing their stocks.

I hope you see my point here. The problem is that investors can weaponize selling to gain anti-competitive leverage against companies that threaten the market dominance of other companies and the paradigms they serve and maintain, such as the paradigm of individual car ownership.