Everett Klipp: 'Babe Ruth of the CBOT.'.

When a typical trader retires or loses his fortune and never returns to the pits, it is doubtful his name will be remembered among the thousands who have walked through the exchange doors.

But there are always exceptions. Everett Klipp, former owner of Alpha Futures and 50-year veteran of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), recently stepped down from day-to-day trading, preferring to spend his days golfing under the hot Florida sun. But the mention of his name still evokes smiles and praise from the traders he befriended and mentored over the years.

"Everett's the Babe Ruth of the Chicago Board of Trade," says James Zavesky, president of Chicago-based Eclipse Futures. "He's an icon in the Chicago business scene."

Klipp was born in Manteno, a farming town in central Illinois. A self-proclaimed "farm boy," he began working as a runner at the CBOT in 1946 for a firm that eventually became Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Bean. What began as a part-time job to fill his days while he attended Chicago Technical College in the evenings developed quickly into a passion and a career.

Following the traditional course of progression, Klipp clerked with John Morris & Co. for 8 years until a friend in Morris' office loaned him $4,200 to buy a seat in the wheat pit. Before he bid on his first bushel of wheat, though, Klipp sought out some advice from John Morris that later became the foundation of his simple but disciplined trading style.

"Mr. Morris told me anytime you can take a loss, do it. and you'll always be at the [CBOT]," Klipp says, "I lost money that first day and kept losing until I retired in 1998."

Klipp's trading style was not flashy, but no one can argue with its effectiveness. Despite the increase in specialized trading systems and advancements in technology over the years. Klipp never modernized his philosophy.

"I urged traders never to look at charts, never to read The Wall Street Journal and never to think, because a trader doesn't have the privilege of thinking, hesitating or procrastinating," he says. "Traders don't have that privilege because while they are thinking, the market might move a point against them."

Klipp was a pure scalper. He grabbed his losses fast and let his profits fide, never went home with a position that could hurt him, and always traded within his limits and personality.