Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will preside over his last Fed policy meeting Tuesday and Wednesday before exiting office on Feb. 1. During his tenure as chairman, he managed to surprise industry experts, and even won over a few critics. Per the Wall Street Journal:

"Three or four years ago I was thinking like a lot of people that Bernanke and the Fed had lost their mind" and would create massive inflation, says Mr. Hackney, senior partner at Atlanta Capital Management LLC, which oversees $18 billion.

But markets stabilized, inflation stayed low and Mr. Hackney changed his mind. "I've become convinced that Bernanke was right and I was wrong," says the 40-year market veteran.

But many professional investors are acknowledging, sometimes grudgingly, that Mr. Bernanke has gone a long way toward achieving the main goal he set in 2008: He has stabilized markets and restored a large measure of investor and public confidence. Many thought it impossible that he would accomplish what he did.