Dick Bove: Crazy-Smart, or Just Crazy?

"Their message to me is talk to everybody all the time," Bove said in an interview with TheStreet.com.

Bove's popularity with the media may be due to his outspokenness, but perhaps also because he has been right on his calls more often than not in recent years. He has been named by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Zack's, among others, as a top stock-picker and earnings predictor.

Early last month, Bloomberg cited Bove as one of the top two analysts who made investors the most money in the past year. His sell ratings on the large brokerage firms produced profits of 18%, a performance bested only by Charles Peabody of Portales Partners, whose ratings calls produced investors' profits of 47%, Bloomberg said.

"I always take a look at the macro factors -- financial or economic -- which are driving an industry, and then I make a decision as to whether I want to be invested in it or not," Bove says. "The problem with that approach is that I would have to say I am always early.

"Everybody in this business knows if you're too early, you're wrong, and therefore you have to go though this agonizing period until the events swing in the direction you will think it will swing," he says. "We're not playing this game for 10% or 15% returns. We're looking for hundreds of percent. I don't do any corporate finance business at all, so I live or die based upon my recommendations."