Partially agree with you. Sure in the end SP is the function of supply and demand but in the end, like other commodities traded, supply and demand of stocks can and surely is manipulated to the advantage of the people having control on resources, means large stock holdings. Due to large number of retail participants its not much easy these days to control price absolutely by anyone but there are many subtle ways to do that. It will be very naïve to believe that stock trading is a fair game where everything is purely dependent on supply and demand without much intervention from stakeholders. This in the end is a zero sum game where the loss of many becomes the profit of some and hence manipulation is a very basic part of the game.
