This article misses the reason why short term investors are potentially harmfull. The author writes: "One basic and important implication of this theory is that, if you hold a share of stock for a minute, you will want the company to increase its long-term earnings power during that minute. If, during your minute of ownership, the company announces "we have sold all our factories and ruined our productive capacity, but we booked a big profit for this minute," you will be sad. "

This is so simple it is wrong. The truth is, that the short term investor cares how PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE changes during that minute. For example, if Kobe steel holds off on making a fraud scandal public during that minute, that's a good thing, even if keeping the fraud skandal secret will hurt in the long term. The short term investor wants the IPhone X to be announced NOW, even if holding off on the announcment could give apple a leg up against the competitors. The short term investor wants toshiba to announce they've got a good deal selling off their memory business NOW, even if that makes it harder for toshiba to improve the price they get even further with a bidding war.