With any security analysts I first determine the bigger (primary) trend. Its the general, prevailing direction of the security. Is it going up or down in the long-term?
If that primary trend is up, then it is more profitable to "buy the dips". In other words, when for some reason the security that has been in a long-term uptrend drops in price and stops falling, you buy it hoping it will go up. Example of buying dips is the general market - S&P 500 index or the Dow Jones. The easiest way to do this is to simply buy a regular ETF, like SPY or DIA.