Abstract: A general-purpose approach to solving the core problems of detecting and predicting the actions of invisible actors, and the consequential challenges of intervention and prevention. The operational forecasting system is applied to data gathered from complex systems. The operational forecasting system uses novel early-warning signals that are based on anomalous behaviors of actors/agents that are observed, as they respond to those unobserved actors that are the source of systemic change. The operational forecasting system targets predicting when an event will occur, before it does, based on the anomalous behaviors of observed actors responding to those invisible actors that are creating the perturbation (i.e. the murmuration).