tortoise,
It is expected answer from someone like that. If it is anything else you should suspect that he is either lying or the drinks may be getting to him. =)
Most retail traders and many "hedge funds" are classic "clients" in the trading world. There are many kinds of "clients" and those who trade opinion, macro view or long term models do not care much about mechanics of the instruments they trade. e.g. If they touched CDOs they are toasted since 2008 because they have not spent the time needed to understand what they are dealing with.
A system is rigged if some party is allowed to and can actively corner the other participants. It is similar to someone who can actively see all your cards in a poker game or can control the dice in a game. That is what you see in the current state of the stock market. e.g. MM bots simply take over the market making function with no mercy - making many day traders whose been trading as liquidity providers out of business.
These situations should not be allowed to happen but dark pools and other means are making it possible and authorities are too slow to solve (or just ignoring) this problem.
As a trader, if you are aware of the change in price behaviour, you can adjust and ride the waves.
I have posted enough information here in this thread on reading the structure of the market and they are good for dealing with intraday behaviour in the stock indices. For other instruments, you need to fine tune the methods as different markets do behaviour differently.