You may want to learn reading charts to perform technical analysis....read the news for fundamentals as well...
For example, learn about MACD, CCD, Divergence etc...and see what indicators work for your trading periods...
http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg60ztgSzbgBza1gWMAzm1g10za2gWMAzm2g25zxzi1gCCIzi2gMACDzvBasically, learning when to enter a trade and most importantly when to exit out of a trade...I usually enter in at +100 or -100 depending on direction and exit out at the same when the spike is over....