RE: Qualitative Analysis
Hello hbassi12 and welcome to the bullboards. I hope that you find valuable information here and learn a bit about the investment process.
I can attempt to answer your question, others are certainly free to jump in and add their input. EBITDA, Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation/Depletion and Amoritzation, measures the profiability of the firm and how management is utilizing resources before the above are factored in. Items such as amortization are an accounting entry on capital assets purchased for a long term time horizon, which is why cash flow is important to measure as well, to see what is coming in and what is going out.
Discount brokerage accounts are good to have if you are confident that you can trade on your own and do your own research. I have a DB account with RBC and they have a good set of charts and indicators to analzye stocks. They also have the companies' website links to get their corporate info and some limited news releases as well.
For investment research, I find that the Financial Post has a good market data section, where you can find the daily trading statistics and key indicators. Yahoo Finance and the Globe Investor (Globe and Mail) are also good sources of financial information. For blogs, I find this site good (although sometimes you have to filter out the BS) for information. Stocktwits.com can be a valuable source of info as well.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Steam