Analysis refers to understanding the present to make reasonable estimates about the future

Some basic questions to which each investor seeks an answer are mentioned below:

• What To Buy or Sell?
• When To Buy or Sell?
• Whether To Buy A or B?
• When To book profits?
• When to Cut Losses?

Technical Analysis gives a precise answer to the above mentioned questions. 
Technical Analysis finds its roots from Dow Theory which was developed by Charles Dow in late 1800. He is also referred as the Father of Technical Analysis. The three tenets of the Dow Theory are as follows:

• Prices Move in Identifiable Trends
• Trends Once Established Are Likely To Continue
• There Are Primary, Intermediate & Minor Trends

Technical Analysis takes into account that the markets are driven not by fundamentals but the perception of those fundamentals, i.e. the way the investing community looks at fundamentals. In one word it can be termed as Sentiment Analysis.
The following three types of information are needed in Technical Analysis:

• Price – Present & Historic
• Volume – Present & Historic
• Breadth – Present & Historic

The above information is plotted on a graph with time on X axis and time on the Y axis. The picture that wil appear is shown below.

Plotting the price and time on the graph helps in determining the trend of the price movement. Trend is one of the integral part of Technical Analysis.

Technical Aalysis eliminates emtions from trading decisions and focusses on maximising the profits and minmising the losses.