Tom Williams (VSA Inventor) spoke quite often on this subject of the Smart Money in webinars, because he worked for the smart money in the sixties and seventies (he left and retired in the early eighties, after making his fortune, and did the computerisation of wyckoff, which eventually become VSA in his spare time as a hobby).
In the days when he started working in the markets, he was employed to hand draw charts for a "Private Trading Syndicate".
These were generally the forerunner to hedge funds.
They held many multiples of accounts with various names and addresses to avoid showing their hand on accumulations, they did not want anyone to know what they were doing at anytime (not the public, not other syndicates, not the company involved....no-one....).
Some accumulations were quickly done, and the markup started after a relatively short time.
They worked on a handful of instruments at any one time, so one maybe under accumulation, a couple being marked up, one maybe under distribution, and a couple being marked down........or any combination of them.......
Whereas some accumulations took a fairly short time others took ages to complete.......one he spoke of many times, as it was easily the longest they ever did......it took seven years to complete (for various reasons).......but it was well worth while, as they made an absolute mottsa on it, and Tom himself was sent to the AGM to personally start a serious rumour which finished the mark up, and began the distribution.
Sorry this is a bit rushed, as I am about to go out for the day, will check in again later......
