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Page 153
accuracy would offer an enormous competitive advantage over more traditional methods of analysis.
Neal: In some ways intermarket analysis is much like spreading. Would you say you're taking it to the next level?
Louis: Based on my experience of more than 25 years' involvement in the financial markets, and nearly as long as a commercial trading software developer, it is my opinion that intermarket analysis is on the brink of broadening the definition of technical analysis, just as system testing did in the early 1980s. The markets have changed drastically since then, and single-market trading approaches, although still popular, particularly among novice traders, now leave much to be desired. By incorporating predictive information based upon intermarket analysis into your trading plan, and by recognizing that success requires more than simply reading a trading signal off a computer printout or "eyeballing" price charts from related markets, you will become a more confident and effective trader in today's complex world of futures trading.
Neal: What advice would you give traders today?
Louis: Avoid the herd instinct. If the oft-quoted industry loss statistics (that 90 to 95% of individual traders end up as losers) are even remotely accurate, then to succeed, you can't just do what everyone else does. Otherwise, the most likely scenario is that you'll end up just like them. You've got to think, analyze, and act differently. After being involved with intermarket analysis for more than a decade, and with the world financial markets now more interconnected than ever, I believe that every trader needs to have at a minimum an awareness of what's going on in related markets. This is a critical piece of the analytic puzzle that can no longer be ignored if you want to avoid becoming a trading casualty. But overly simplistic intermarket analysis can be fatal, such as assuming that bonds and stocks always trade

 
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