I agree with vayama here is why stocks are valued on the basis of earnings going forward at the root of this is a forecast all good forecast are based on a knowledge of the business eg finanials eg reading a cashflow statement the actual business eg capital raised, production, contracts won, nearology etc where we are in cycle where we are headed
only once you know this does the buying and selling make any sense at all
technical analysis is an advanced skill and it should come at the end of the learning process