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Black Belt Trading: Investing Like a Pro 151

to capture the big returns. That’s why patience and discipline are, in my
opinion, key characteristics of successful speculators.”

• KEY POINTS •

• Many of the market’s biggest winners will have triple-digit
earnings and sales.
• Watch for shoe fads.
• The patterns of the big winners from the past repeat them-
selves over and over.
• In the evening, read eIBD as a resource tool for finding the
market’s leaders.
• Develop patience and discipline.

Jim Roppel
Jim is the founder and managing partner of a hedge fund in the Chicago
area. When you talk to Jim, his energy and enthusiasm for the market is obvi-
ous. He notes, “Opportunities in the stock market are endless if an investor
is willing to do their homework, stay disciplined, and learn to be patient.”
Shortly after graduating college, Jim began his financial career as a stock
broker. At the time, his dad invested in biotech and drug companies. Jim
thought he would try investing in medical stocks as well. His initial buys
moved higher, however, when a stock’s price cratered due to a bad earnings
report, or when a company didn’t get approval for one of their drugs, the
drawdown was severe. Since Jim hadn’t yet developed sell rules, he lost a
great deal of money.
For several years, Jim would struggle as a stock broker, continuing to look
for a winning system, even trying value investing, but he didn’t have much
success with any new strategy. He was determined to succeed, though, so he
kept reading various books and publications on investing.

In Search of Excellence
In 1990, Jim came across How to Make Money in Stocks at a bookstore and
was immediately intrigued. He also found Investor’s Business Daily and