Aggressive Stock-Picking, Week 4: How to Trade Off of Unusual Activity

Editor's note: The Aggressive Stock-Picking Training Program is a series of six weekly assignments. To start with Week 1, click here. Each assignment is based on one of James Altucher's strategies in his book, Trade Like a Hedge Fund. To get a copy of the book, click here.

This assignment was written by Stockpickr member Ira Krakow.

Last week's assignment focused on how to trade stocks that are rising on unusual volume. To recap, unusual volume is one type of unusual stock activity that can hint at a large, sudden price increase. However, it's hardly the only one.

Many times, large outside shareholders may load up on a stock in anticipation of a big event, such as a merger , an acquisition or a major new order. Another harbinger of unusual activity is when a company announces a buyback . ...