Fundamental analysis is the appreciation of the economics underlying a particular trade.
If you want to know where to invest and why, you use the techniques of fundamental analysis. Technical analysis is concerned with the when and the how of placing money. It determines the optimal timing for a position and its conclusions about how long to stay in a particular trade have significant importance for the kind of derivatives structure one may use to take a position. For a foreign exchange trader, fundamental analysis is focused on the macroeconomics of the particular currencies involved, including the implications of the current account, the GDP growth rate, domestic consumption, domestic production and other political factors that influence the currency's relative value. As we move into more company-specific investments such as individual equities, fundamental analysis becomes more preoccupied with microeconomic questions related to the firm.