Futuman, Porgie, and jessop just because you ignore everything else going in all the other markets does not mean it is pointless. Many traders are very successful using market correlations to trade stock indexes and everything else. Sometimes the correlations are obvious, sometimes less so. Its all big complicated jigsaw puzzles with the pieces showing up and disappearing. If it was super obvious and easy to put everything together we would all be millionaires. It takes practice and lots of study, just like everything else about trading the markets. You personally made a decision to block everything out instead of trying figuring it out, but it by no means is the "right 100% thing to do."
"A typical move in U.S stocks may start like this. The U.S bond market goes up.... The dollar follows. The U.S stock market immediately rises because of increased value of U.S earnings with lower interest rates. The high grade copper, a primary industrial metal, moves up in anticipation of greater investment spending. The Japanese stock market drops because U.S assets are now becoming more attractive to foreigners. But this makes gold decline because inflation is likely to be lower with a strong dollar. With inflation down, something has to be less attractive. It is time for meats, grain, and soft commodities to recede because there will less purchasing power left for them. But if European and Japanese assets are to decline, soon they will pull down the U.S stock market. And the cycle will be ready to reverse. All this in a minute or two, 10 or 12 times day"
Victor Niederhoffer
