I've been reading several posted trade comments and one thing I've noticed is that people are chasing the action, they get an alert and try to get in.  From my experience an alert is just like an indicator, lagging.

Usually once the alert is sent the action is already in play, for me the best thing to do is to wait and get a sense of what the stock is doing and I never chase after the price action up or down.

If its running I will wait or try to anticipated a level that price will settle at and then make a decision whether to get in or not.