I apologize in advance as I went straight to the end of this thread without reading it, so I will prolly repeat much.
ALL "indicators" are lagging by definition as they are derived from price. Volume can be an exception if you call it an indicator. And of course forecasting models such as cycles and anything from Bob Prechtor.
On an economy wide basis, GDP is prolly the most lagging and inaccurate "indicator" there is. Virtually no economists working outside the government give it any credibility whatsoever. For recession analysis, nothing is really without faults, but unemployment, bankruptcies, and revenues are the ones to look at. Yes, they lag also. Do not listen to the 80%+ of economists who work for Wall St, banks, or the US Government as its their job to always be more optimistic than reality dictates (these are the ones most quoted). Look to academia, or private consultants. Roubini is a good example. No conflicts of interest.
For real time day trading, if you do not wish to deal with lagging indicators, just use price action at supp/resis. I personally use previous highs and lows, trend lines, FIB retracements (especially with T bond futures), pivots (only with ES, and only 2nd and 3rd deviation), and volume on a 1 minute and 5 minute chart. Seems to work well.
When in new territory such as new lows (or highs as with bonds now), I use measurements from the most recent wave or move (I measure the previous distance of the last move from high to low). This can be amazingly accurate when you have nothing else to use.
