that article isnt very specific. They dont post any numbers and Im not surprised that they would not make any predictions of where the market would go.

That fact is, when you buy stock in a bank or insurance company, they can turn around an put that money to work. If you buy a mutual fund, the fund managers can rent it out to people who trade options. Mutual fund managers keep buying the same stocks in the fund and they have billions of dollars to work with.

When you look back to the 60's and 70's you had a very small stock market. Whats left of union pensions and private pensions are also invested in stock and or bonds. Money flows to the best return, which is why there is a rotation between stocks, bonds, gold, currency and other investments.

Govt owned investments would also skew the results. China buys minerals and oil etc to feed their economy with raw materials. Cities and states have investments, and they can lose taxpayer money in the process.

Who they attribute ownership or control to are two different things. I can buy into a fund, but the manager determines what stocks are bought and what percentages are held in the portfolio.

Its deceptive just to look at stocks and think the market is controlled by a few, even percentage wise. Large cap stocks could trade 50 million shares a day, while medium and small cap stocks will move up or down based on a few thousand shares. Even after hours trading can boost a stock way up overnight when the quarterly results are presented.