It is indeed the case that it's something of an urban myth that buying early gets the cheapest fare. If your travel is discretionary (very fare dependent) then you best book about 6 weeks off, as a very, very general rule. When flights are initially set up, not only are the high price buckets the first to go on sale - to grab those who really have to travel on those services - but the lower priced buckets may also be at a high price too. Just because a cheap bucket is available doesn't mean the price is cheap, it merely means less expensive that some other fares!

Two threads in the Dashboard will help you: the request seat availabilty thread gives bucket information, though it's a bit soon to get too far with this; and the Abbreviation guide is a glossary with the buzz words we keep using. Welcome to the BA forum sgrech.