"to put it simply..."? Sorry, but I didn't understand very much. I've come on this page repeatedly, and each time I tried to understand your post, so I could reply something, but I couldn't. Will you please summarize it in one sentence, down-to-earth?
Travis, Here is a quick and accurate solution for you. Set up a brief MLR. Use the m of the MLR. The left m is a constant and below the m of the right one, intiially. The right m sginals you as a leading indicator as it drops once R or S is hit. The right m can be used all day for giving you a leading indicator of your contrarian entry. This is because it will continually oscillate around neutral (m=0) once the R or S is being tested. If you get beyond beginner, you may want to explore the use of three MLR's (Google "pinwheel" as a detail search under one or more of my names.) Measuring three angles of rotation (as pairings of the m's of the MLR's with respect to time) and their direction is a very handy trading device that will allow you to carve all turns to make money all of the time.
Actually I found it quite illuminating... a moving regression of the first degree... Tazara... 20070016507 ... you gotta dig a bit with Jack, but the info is there...
OK, this post made absolutely no sense to me at first either. So with the diagrams posted (left one, right one), Google search on "regression trend MLR", ET search on MLR and 10 minutes in between watching an anticipated BO on the Nikkei, I was able to figure out what Jack is on about. m is the price gradient w.r.t. time, or slope, or first derivative, or rate of change - which means continuation for trends. Change is what you are looking for to determine if trends are over (when the rate of price change goes through zero). Jack looks at 3 variables in his multivariate linear regression. (Please expand on this Jack.) I suspect channels and traverses do the job graphically. Bigmoose got it too. Come on guys, raise your game. Surprise the man.
Travis, If you were familiar with the work of J.M. Hurst , Walter Bressert, Jim Curry etc. you could visualize price action and my comment would make sense to you. Price action is nothing but summation of underlying cycles. Cycles can be made visible (at least approximations) with simple tools. From there it is a matter of ingenuity how to make it practical. The problem with TA is that people throw math at it without having a clue about the nature of price action. Good luck in your search for a workable method. GC