Ironworker's pick holds up against 600 competitors

Take this, you egotistical economists, you puffed-up pundits and anal analysts.

The supreme Sun-Times stock picker of 2006, the winner of this year's Monkey Business with the best stock guess submitted at the start of this year, is a 66-year-old ironworker with a pickup truck, three children, four grandchildren and a no-nonsense approach to life and investing.

The name's Joe Pozzi and he lives in Burr Ridge. His pick for our contest last January was U.S. Global Investors, aptly tickered GROW, a mutual fund management firm. It gained 383 percent during 2006 and thus is the top gaining stock among those that more than 600 readers submitted.

Pozzi said his hobbies are "fishing, stocks and fishing." He'll travel the world over to find a good fishing hole, which makes this year's Monkey Business prize especially appropriate.

He and his wife, Betty, win a seven-night vacation for two at the Occidental Grand Xcaret in Riviera Maya, Mexico, courtesy of Apple Vacations. Pozzi said he's already got his eye on a spot a couple hours south of there.

He's had a few days to contemplate his trip because he took control of the contest in the last month. GROW was nowhere in the leadership standings until it had a monster runup in valuation in November and December.

After fending off a challenge from two readers who picked transformer company Jinpan International, Pozzi won the contest in a romp.

Yes, he put real money on his stock, getting in and out of it at several points. A 35-year ironworker currently assigned to a Chicago Transit Authority job on the Dan Ryan Expy., Pozzi finds his work schedule works well with active investing.

"The market opens at about the time I take my morning coffee break. At noon I can come back and make adjustments and at night I do all my research," he said.

So what got him into stocks? Maybe a finance course or some MBA work? Nah, he said it was his mom and an aunt.

Pozzi said his mom was a longtime worker at Illinois Bell and taught him the wealth that stocks can produce. His aunt had a record of wise investments, too. "Back in 1949, 1950, she told me all the soda pop was going to be in cans and I thought she was insane,'' he said.

"I've been reading the business section since I was 12 or 13,'' he said. He's also embraced technology, using software that has sharpened his trading.

Pozzi said he manages five portfolios for family members. He knows when the money must be put away for the long term, favoring blue-chip companies that use dividend-reinvestment programs, and when it can be used speculatively.

An example: When his youngest daughter was born, Pozzi opened an account for her, putting $100 into it here and there, maybe more when he logged overtime. His daughter is 15 now. He said that account is worth $184,000.

His first rule: Pay yourself first. And he's a believer in those dividend reinvestments.

Over the years, Pozzi has worked on such notable buildings as the 333 W. Wacker skyscraper, the Citigroup Center and the Nordstrom near Michigan Avenue. He said he looks forward to retiring within a couple of years.

That'll give him more time to tend to his family -- and their holdings.

Although he won the contest by a comfortable margin, many Sun-Times readers once again demonstrated their market smarts. About 50 guessed stocks that gained at least 100 percent on the year and many more easily cleared the market indexes.

Special mention is warranted for our 2005 contest winner, Dennis Rybarczyk of Park Ridge, who contended for a repeat with his 2006 pick of Nitches (NICH), which was up more than 208 percent and finished third in our contest.

Accompanying this story is a list of our top 10 reader picks and also how past winners of this contest fared.

Congratulations to all. Now, watch the Sun-Times for details about our 2007 contest.