[james_gsx]

They don't find out the information ahead of time, or they do and it's called insider trading.

But theres another way, doing your homework on the stock. Then those breaking news announcements aren't so much of a surprise. Most of the people with big money have news feeds so they find out about the event far before it hits CNBC. For example, I did a lot of homework on Jones Soda before their earnings announcement. Feb 27 came and the stock was sold off pretty fast, I knew it was cheap and I knew they would report a great quarter and I knew they would be reporting very positive info that could bring great future growth (bringing their product to places like walmart). So I went long ahead of earnings and made 17% over night. Will this happen everytime? Absolutely not, but I did my research and had a plan ahead of time.

Please notice the keyword there too, I had a plan. Not having a plan and trying to trade is like going into battle with no idea who you're fighting against, just blindly shooting at anything. You will get slaughtered. Remember when you trade, you are trading other traders and money just flows from one account to the other. You have to have this mindset.

I would start off looking at a lot of the IBD stuff and learn how to do technical analysis (if that fits your style, I know guys who make a ton of money and couldn't read a chart to save their life). That way you can understand how the market moves and why it does the things it does. You will be able to understand why certain stocks shoot up and why others don't. From there, figure out what fits your personality and trade that. People can recommend futures, forex, options, but you have to figure out what fits your personality and go from there, thats the only way you'll be successful.

Good luck!