I think from your own admission you're not overly clear on...

I think from your own admission you're not overly clear on technical analysis and haven't done much study in the area? As is the case with fundamental investors, there are good and bad technical traders. The often cited 90% of traders lose conundrum points to the fact that the 10% of winners are exploiting a huge pot of opponents to benefit from. If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it. If you think and act like the herd you will in essence achieve their results.

Buy and hold (and hope) is a strategy good enough for those with lengthy time horizons and decent capital. A few investments should see at-least some out-performance of the general market. But there are plenty of examples of capital erosion to persuade me atleast to work a little more actively on the matter. Renaissance Technologies Medallion fund holds the top place for the most sucessful fund in history I think and this isn't a buy and hold strategy. Even Berkshire Hathaway would use incredibly sophisticated and targeted algorithms to buy and sell their positions.

It's a bit more involved than some lines and looking in the mirror, but like anything worth pursuing you'd have to dig far below the surface - and 90% of people can't be bothered waiting or doing the work.