Well, Heavy footers, General, Big Money, etc. does not matter they are the ones that move price, us retail traders are a drop of water in the ocean...
It was driven by news. "Aviva was the highest riser just before close on Wednesday, after the Budget saw the chancellor reduce the tax advantages of buy-to-let by capping mortgage interest cost relief at the basic rate, which some analysts argued may be positive for retail investment companies." But my point was only Institutions can move price like that. And, as the OP remarked, even they probably don't know what the hell they're doing either. "...most of the idiots who trade other peoples' money (e.g. pension funds) change their mind much like the wind shifts direction!" "Always remember, most of the idiots on the other end of a keyboard do not have one iota of how the markets operate!" "And last, but not least, maybe no one knows what the hell they are doing, and all that you are seeing is a bunch of idiots placing bets on a big game that has no rules - even though they think it has!!"
IMO, as with any other market, security prices only change due to an imbalance of supply and demand. MMs are just middle-men between buyers and sellers, earning a commission through the spread. As the OP said, "MMs hedge their bets" so it doesn't matter to them whether prices go up or down.
Virtually all stock is generally owned. It's just that most people own stock through pooled investments like pension funds, mutual funds. That's why fund managers are the big players in the market.
But Pension Funds / IB can only go long, so they want to see the prices going down before buying and going up after buying. The obvious pre-requisite to trading any market is knowing your opponents. The ultimate goal is to "Look for the trick before the click"
I can't disagree with your second sentence. The majority of pension/mutual funds can't even keep up with a passive index tracker, so they are obviously useless at trading. I'm inclined to agree with the OP that fund managers are just another bunch of idiots.
Add Institutional Ownership to your toolbox, and you are running away from the herd. What makes no sense, since to make money, the only thing we need to do is SHABL and SLABH. I've read many books to support my opinion. That is Obvious. The question remains: How can you determine 'correct' institutional ownership on a daily(?) basis. I suppose you obviously know the answer
So, if I understand correctly, if you can spot Pension founds and IB order blocks (T&S could help here) you may be able to profit from this info as Market manipulators (MM? Brokers?) would try to take this money away form the IB and Pension founds (as they enter positions way bigger than retail traders all together)...