(MONEY Magazine) – OCCUPATION: Retired entrepreneur RESIDENCE: Florida

Hank Hill is no buy-and-hold disciple. But his creed works for him.

Hill, 81, has spent 14 years, in his words, "religiously investing" in Value Line's 100 top-ranking stocks. Every Friday he pores over the weekly survey, which uses a proprietary screen, and dumps stocks that have fallen out and buys their replacements. His faith requires 400 trades a year.

His reward: an annualized return of 19.5% through 1997, according to Tony Grau Jr., a Boca Raton, Fla. accountant and financial planner who looked over Hill's records for MONEY. That's after commissions--Hill used discount brokers early on--and before dividends. Of course, his trading has other costs. Last year, 35% of his $3.4 million in capital gains were taxed as regular income.

Hill studied Value Line for years before deciding to follow it. Sticking to a system, he says, keeps an investor from winding up "in a flock of sheep running off in different directions spooked by media hype."

--Ingrid Eisenstadter