Disclaimer:
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice, nor should it be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. Always conduct your own research and consider consulting a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Italian legislation forbids boycotts as a means of protest. Consumer choices cannot be influenced to punish a company for its conduct. Apart from that, it would be impossible to target an electricity provider based on its choice of energy sources. Contrary to the propaganda of EEB affiliates, there is no opposition between the fossil fuel industry desperately fighting against renewables for its survival and green companies. Every fossil fuel corporation has a green subsidiary with an environmentally friendly name.
Let’s see if investors have a bit more freedom. They might express support for a business by investing money in it. They can also express disapproval of how a company is managed by short selling its stock.
This is how short selling works:
    • You borrow the stock and sell it now.
    • Later, you buy it back to return it.
    • If the price goes down, you profit.
    • If the price goes up, you lose.

The Bank of Italy imposes some restrictions on short selling, whereas it is usually allowed in major European stock exchanges.
Activist short selling is not unheard of. There are plenty of green ETFs, wind, solar, and battery companies listed in the stock market. They have experienced a severe loss of interest in recent years. However, we are now living in the “bubble of everything,” so those tickers have increased like everything else in the market. Taking a short position on them might result in a significant loss.

Nassim Taleb is a former hedge fund risk analyst, mathematician, and expert in randomness and probability. His series of books called “Incerto” is far from being a regular personal finance booklet promising a guaranteed path to success with an overly confident smiling guy on the cover.
Trading is barely mentioned and overshadowed, for instance by Greek myths and more self-references than an ego-trip rap song — but a very good one.
Everything revolves around the concept of Antifragility: Instead of trying to predict everything, one should try to benefit from uncertainty.
Meet the Barbell Strategy: Combine extreme safety on one side with small, high-risk bets on the other side — thus avoiding medium, fragile risks that you would normally take.
The most practical financial application of this strategy is option trading.
An option is a contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a fixed price before a certain date.
There are two main types:
    • Call option → the right to buy at a fixed price. You’d buy a call if you think the stock will go up.
    • Put option → the right to sell at a fixed price. You’d buy a put if you think the stock will go down.
      A quick call option example:
    • Stock is trading at $100.
    • You buy a call option that lets you buy it at $105 anytime in the next month.
    • If the stock goes to $120, you can still buy at $105, so you profit.
    • If the stock stays below $105, the option is worthless, and you just lose what you paid for the option (called the premium).
A quick put option example:
    • Stock is trading at $100.
    • You buy a put option that lets you sell it at $95 anytime in the next month.
    • If the stock falls to $80, you can still sell at $95, so you profit.
    • If the stock stays above $95, the option is worthless, and you just lose what you paid for the option (the premium).
      
Unlike regular short selling, a put option tells you in advance how much money might get lost (that is the premium). However, if the stock devalues, one has the right to sell 100 stock units at the target price (assuming your trading account allows short selling), benefiting from the difference and contributing to the erosion of the targeted stock’s valuation more incisively.
Of course, not all Sardinians would start trading stock options right now, but Taleb can help us again with the concept of the "ruthless minority".
It refers to a small but intransigent minority—often around 3-4% of the population—whose firm and inflexible preferences can shape the behavior and choices of the entire majority. This minority has "skin in the game", meaning they bear significant cost or commitment to their stance, which drives them to be uncompromising. Because the majority is often indifferent or flexible about certain issues, this small group's demands or behaviors become the norm, causing society to submit to their preferences.
For instance, assuming that 4% of people have developed an intolerance to lactose, a workplace canteen would start using lactose-free dairy products for all customers, despite the fact that 96% of people don't actually care.