Well maybe. I'm not directly in this industry either but it...

Well maybe. I'm not directly in this industry either but it makes sense if you consider how employees are assessed and remunerated and the dynamics at play. Retail investors can afford to be more contrarian, or at least this is easier for them to do as they are accountable to no one but themselves (and I suppose the boss i.e. spouse). Fund managers and other financial "helpers" will tend to follow the herd because if the herd is wrong they have the safety of the crowd... If they lose money then you can't blame them because the market was down overall. Of course when the market is up then gains are all due to their own individual brilliance.

If these types were to attempt to invest against the market trend then they face an uphill battle explaining the move to bosses, investors, etc. and there is no where to shift blame if things go wrong.

Additionally they need to appear to be doing things for their clients even if doing nothing is a superior strategy.

Of course instos have their own advantages - mostly related to scale. For starters there is some possibility that they can influence the board, whereas most retail investors are way too small and are at the mercy of the current. Though being large scale does bring it's own set of market disadvantages as well.