What do the arrows mean on my cable?

You're going the wrong / right way

Nothing for sure.

Probably depends on the manufacturer.

Many of my old Audioquest cables have arrows that indicate the recommended "direction" of the signal -- like if you're connecting a preamp to an amp, the interconnect should be oriented with the arrows pointing at the amp.

Likewise, for source components, the arrows should point away from the signal source and toward the preamp.

Supposedly, the interconnects had directionality that affected the sound, though I could never hear any difference.

I inadvertently reinstalled the digital cable between my transport and DAC once and my system literally sounded broken.  That was a miserable 5 minutes until I figured out what I did wrong, and once the cable was installed back correctly all was well again.  I have another digital cable with no arrows and the guy who designed it (Chris Sommovigo, RIP) told me it didn’t matter what direction it was installed and he was right — I couldn’t hear any difference installed one way or the other.  Bottom line is, and as others have said, it seems to be very cable specific. 

My Signal Cable, Audioquest, Transparent, Raven Audio cables all have a directional indicator no matter if it is Digital or Analog.

My Zavfino Cables cables state a direction by instructing you to have the directional shells farthest from the source.