Preferred Stocks: The Art of Profitable Income Investing

What should a reader get from "Preferred Stocks: The Art of Profitable Income Investing?" A logical assumption is that this is merely a second edition of my 2007 award-winning book "Preferreds: Wall Street's Best Kept Income Secret." However, this is incorrect!

Before "Preferreds" was written, the modern investing world was flying blind when it came to preferred stocks.

That was the first book written on preferred stocks since the 1930s, and until the development of the Winans International Preferred Stock Index (WIPSI)TM, there wasn't a current benchmark to evaluate the $200 billion preferred stock market.

This was uncharted territory for investment analysis. The superior overall performance of preferred stocks was revealed. Preferreds also proved that popular technical indicators (such as the 200-day moving average) worked in identifying changes in the long-term price trends of preferred stocks from 1900-2005.

Although a winner of the 2007 Best Books Contest, many critics have attacked the book for having too many charts, or as written in the 2009 book "Investing in Preferred Stock," "There is little one can say to discourage the large world of investors who are enamored of technical analysis and momentum trading. Investors interested in applying short-term technical methods may find Preferreds to be useful."

It appears that the classic battle between technical and fundamental investors is alive and well when it comes to this security!

Needless to say, these readers missed the key points to my research. Much of what I forecasted in 2006 came true, and many of the long-term research tools discussed performed brilliantly on signaling that a new bear market arrived in preferred stocks in May 2007 (seven months prior to the financial free-fall of 2008) as well as the new uptrend in preferred stocks in April 2009. In fact, my company, Winans International Investment Management and Research, put this knowledge to work and navigated the worst investment climate since the Great Depression.

Why write a new book on preferred stock? Answer: 2008 dramatically changed everything for preferreds!

The once orphaned preferred security, with a total market capitalization of only 7% the size of the massive corporate bond market, were one of the key tools used by the U.S. government in its intervention efforts (i.e., T.A.R.P.) to stabilize the world economy during the Fall of 2008.

Since then, preferred stocks have been the best performing U.S. investment medium in 2009 (and so far in 2010) and are a darling in the financial media.

It is rare to read anything new about investing. Preferred Stock: The Art of Profitable Income Investing builds upon my past historical research from my previous books with the addition of new research (market analysis, investment analysis, etc.) as well as revised methodologies in portfolio management for successful income investing in today's environment.

It is a mystery why preferred stocks, one of the oldest exchange listed investments in existence, had fallen between the cracks in a global investment industry fixated offering as many investment products as possible. "Preferred Stock: The Art of Profitable Income Investing" shows that an unpolished investment gem has been rediscovered.

The rebirth of income investing is here to stay. Why? America's aging population has lost much of its appetite for financial volatility and has chosen the same fiscal course as their ancestors where investment income matters as much as capital appreciation.

Kenneth G. Winans is a successful investment management entrepreneur, an award-winning author, and an active philanthropist.

For over 27 years, he has conducted landmark investment research and designed creative investment strategies while serving as a portfolio manager, investment analyst, broker and investor.

He is a regular guest on TV and radio shows nationwide and has had much of his investment research published as headline articles by leading websites, magazines and newspapers.

Ken is President and Founder of Winans International Investment Management it manages equity and fixed income investments for clients throughout the country and has won national acclaim for its success. In 2009, Winans International won the Small Business Commerce Association's national Best of Business Award. In 2008, Goldline Research ranked Winans International in Forbes Magazine as one of the 10 Most Dependable Investment Advisors.

He pioneered the development of several important investment indexes and technical indicators. In fact, The Winans International Preferred Stock Index (WIPSI)TM and the Winans International Real Estate Index (WIREI)TM (patent pending) are considered leading market indices in Wall Street publications and are used by major financial and academic institutions. The data is available through Global Financial Data.

In 2007, Ken wrote and published the first book on preferred stocks since the 1930s, Preferreds: Wall Street's Best-Kept Income Secret, a winner in the 2007 National Best Book Awards. 19-months later, he wrote and published his 2nd book Investment Atlas: Financial Maps to Investment Success. This investment history book reviews 200 years of events and how stocks, bonds and real estate reacted. It was the winner of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Award's highly competitive Finance category.

He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT), and is President of the San Francisco Chapter of The Market Technician Association. He is also a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute. Ken has a Bachelors degree in Business Economics from the University of San Diego and a Masters in Finance from the University of San Francisco. In 2004, USF named him one of its most celebrated graduates.

He serves as a trustee for several non-profit organizations such as: The Museum of Finance (New York City), The W Foundation (Novato), Chabot Space and Science Center (Oakland), and the Society of California Pioneers (San Francisco).