Not so long ago, the most vaunted value investors--the likes of Bill Miller and several others--saw bank and financial stocks dropping toward book value and figured the worst was over. They were wrong. They got burned pretty badly.

What they should've done was wait, which is what David Tepper, the founder of Appaloosa Management, did to spectacular results. He timed the bank turn pretty well, and the proof is in the numbers. His firm is on track to rack up about $7 billion in profits this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. About $2.5 billion will belong to him personally, which puts him in John Paulson territory.

Interesting fact: His employees, for good luck, once gave him a pair of brass balls, which he sometimes rubs for good luck to get a laugh. The Business Insider has a picture of his balls here.

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