[gruez]

>yes, as opposed to the stock market; if i go buy AAPL calls, i can’t expect to manipulate apple’s share price by, say, buying a bunch of iphones.

Did you miss my entire paragraph on activist investors? The only difference between them and you is that they're putting way more effort into it.

>insider trading is illegal for numerous reasons, “abuse of trust” isn’t wrong, it’s just wholly incomplete.

That's the canonical reason, at least in us securities law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading#United_States_...