Back to the basics.

How to tell if a stock will go up or down?
That's all I want to learn for now. I know you can't be 100% but I don't want to Specifically, how do you know whether a stock will go up or down?

My example of how I would tell is, facebook has been trending upwards. Intraday, intraweek, and intramonth.
I also pulled up bollinger bands and intraday it appears to be closer to the red band meaning oversold.
SO I ASSUME IT WILL GO UP TOMORROW.

How do you guys decide whether a specific stock will go up or down, strategically.

Looks "over bought" here to me. Either way there are other factors to consider.
1. How much capital you have to work with.
2. The time frame you want to work in, ie. just tomorrow, several days or more, long term, etc.
3. How much you are looking to gain vs. how much you are willing to lose.

You could also use strategies that are non-directional, or reduce cost basis to give you an edge. There are many ways to go here.

For me there isn't enough implied volatility to really get a lot of edge....but if for some reason I had some notion that it was going to go higher within the next 50 days and I had a small account I might sell the July 65 calls and buy the Jan15 62.50 calls. This would give you the directional notion with max gain of 245 with around 600$ capital. I would look to cash out somewhere over 50% max profit. And reduce your break even to 60.57. So you would make money as long as it stayed above your break even at July expiration.

In my opinion, the buy on FB was last week as I explained (click) here. Timing is everything. It's not about guessing what it could do on any specific day, but waiting until we have the entry that we like. If you're guessing your gambling. I take calculated directional risks with a clear understanding of price action and risk management. If you make good entries, you will make good exits. Sounds like you still need to work on entries.

I'll give you a hint though, bollies are just going to confuse you even more. Start with a candle chart and volume, that's it. Draw lines across highs and lows. Way easy right? Now go pick 10 charts and just draw. Then go do 100 more. Practice, Practice, Practice. I did a quick video awhile back on where and how to draw on charts for free if you don't have a platform. Watch it here.

You gotta read other threads than just the ones you start man. You'll learn so much quicker. Also, pick one thing to learn for now. You're jumping around a little kid at Chuck E Cheese's. FOCUS. If you want to learn price direction, then focus on learning BASIC price action. If you want to learn options, then stick to what Acstudio has been suggesting.

Anyway, FB is in limbo right now until it clears AND holds 64 resistance. Then next target 67/68 range as I drew on the chart in the link above.