Trading titan

Mark Yegge loves investing in the stock market. He says it has been his passion since he started trading when he was just 12 years old.

Yegge made the Business Observer's 40 under 40 list of top business professionals in 2003, for building NexTrade Holdings, a Wall Street software and development company. Yegge started the company in 1995 and grew it to $30 million in revenue, eventually selling to Citigroup in 2006 to retire. But retiring before the age of 40 didn't last long. “My golf handicap didn't improve enough,” Yegge says.

Yegge now runs a hedge fund company called Intelligrowth, and provides an investment advisory service through stockgenius.com. Three years ago, his portfolio had a 44% return, two years ago a 77% return, and last year an 8.5% return. This year Yegge is shooting to outperform the market again, hoping for a 75% return.