Shareholders don't manipulate price. Board members who own stock in street name are the shareholders.
Apparently the brokers who hold the members stock "in trust for the true shareholder member" are "title holders" who while holding the stock are able to loan the stock to Market Makers. The Market Makers then short sell the stock. Thus my million shares that I assume are available to me to keep or sell when I wish might be loaned out by my broker for a Market Maker to sell, driving down the public price (and the paper value of my stock) and replace my loaned stock with other stock that the broker gives back to me when I want to sell my stock.
Even worse is Naked Short Selling when a person simply sells phantom shares that don't exist in such volume the value of my shares is driven down, scaring off some investors who sell their shares too in a snowball effect that further drives down the value of my stock. Such persons may cover their position by buying back stock at a lower price than they sold, but meanwhile they left the share price lower than when they started. Thus while I buy and hold stock, its value is reduced by computer trading of others who never owned any stock at all.
Placement of a sale order on my stock at a higher than near term expected price apparently prevents my broker from lending out my stock to someone else to play with instead of my broker simply holding onto my stock until I decide to use it.
If I had some gold coins in a safe deposit box, I expect the bank to leave my coins alone so they are always there for me to remove. I don't expect the bank to use my coins as collateral for some loan the bank wants to make. The same is true of my stock certificates I put in my safe deposit box. Let the bank buy and play with their own coins and stock certificates. The same is true of my broker. My stock should be held for me and nobody else even if I don't exercise my right to get my stock in certificate form.
