Everyone's trades are public. You can see who picked what. Trying to cherrypick someone else's stock usually doesn't work. By the time you see it making money you've missed the boat.
As for how you pick a stock, research. I found WaMu by looking at the closing report and the forcasted news for the next day. WaMu was set to announce they had a big wad of cash they could dump if needed. In an uncertain financial market, that's good news. Good news = rising stock.
Also, if you have cable, watch CNBC, Bloomberg or one of the other financial networks. They run 24/7 so you can tune in when you can and get the news.