Bob, please read the following and you will understand the reason for the importance of direction in the use of shotgun-type ICs (which is probably 80 or 90 percent these days.)
Though many mfrs. put arrows on their cables (just to look cool, I guess) the original use of them was when Bruce Brisson designed the shotgun IC for Monster Cable (which was made Monster Cable the ONLY cable to use at that particular moment in history.) He eventually left to start MIT, which he still owns. Until the Shotgun, all single ended ICs were coax -- single center (plus) conductor surrounded by a braided shield which also doubled as the (minus) conductor (a lot like TV coax today.) These ICs were susceptable to RFI pickup and ground loop hum. Bruce used two identical signal conductors in the center (double-barreled 'shotgun' - get it?) and a shield around the whole shebang. One conductor (plus) was connected to the RCA pin at each end, and the other conductor (minus) was connected to the RCA ring (ground) at each end, BUT the shield was only connected to the outer ring (ground) of the RCA plug at one end. Thus it could shield the signal conductors, and drain noise to ground, but it couldn't conduct a current and of course didn't have to carry the minus signal either. (A side benefit of the shotgun arrangement is that the two signal-carrying conductors are identical, which helps reduce time smear problems.) Bruce put an arrow on the cable pointing to the end where the shield was connected to ground (this is called a "floating" shield, because one end isn't connected to another ground point, so it, well, floats!). In order to avoid long explanations to electronically challenged audiophiles, he said "you point the arrows in the direction of the signal flow." What he really was trying to do, was make sure that the end of the IC where the shield was connected to ground (the arrowhead end) would wind up at the preamp, (which is the only component that should be grounded to the AC outlet) creating what's called a "star grounding" system, where all the components' ground noise or hum drains to ground through one point -- the preamp, and the protective shields also are all connected to ground at the preamp. WITH ONE EXCEPTION! As you can see, following the "arrow points in the direction of signal flow" rule between amp and preamp won't work! You still want the end of the IC where the shield is connected to ground, to be at the preamp. Thus the arrows on amp-preamp ICs have to point "backwards." A better rule, which I tell everybody, is "all arrows point to the preamp" and I let it go at that! Most mfrs. do use the Brisson design for their single ended ICs now. These include Audioquest, Monster, Straightwire, MIT, Cardas, some Nordost, XLO, and most of the other big names. Some exceptions are Purist and Magnan and I guess a few others, but that's another conversation.
And even though Cardas ICs are "balanced" (they don't like to say "shotgun", because it sounds like they're copying MIT, which they are!) their ICs don't have arrow because they are "double floating shielded" with each shield connected to ground at the opposite end from the other shield. So it really doesn't matter which way you orient them. So point all your arrows to the preamp and you'll get the best performance out of 90% of all SE ICs.
You still have a great deal to learn about the signal carrying characteristics of different alloys, cable construction/stranding etc., but from what you've revealed so far ("signals transmitted over cables IC, speaker etc)are AC, thus flow in both directions not at the same time of course!"), I'd say you have plenty of time ;~))
