Preferred Stocks
The Art of Profitable Income Investing
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.
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“Ken Winans has delivered another important contribution to the investment literature. In keeping with the standard he set in his previous work, Preferred Stocks: The Art of Profitable Income Investing offers high quality and innovative research with strong visual appeal.”
Mike Carr, CMT—Editor, Technically Speaking Newletter
“I have followed Ken Winans’ research for years, and believe it to be some of the most creative work in the investment business. The Winans International Preferred Stock Index™ (WIPSI™) is by far the best index to track preferred stocks.”
Jim Wilson, CFA—Director of Research, JMP Securities
“One of the things I like about this book is that it goes beyond the traditional portfolio of common stocks, bonds and bills.”
Bryan Taylor, PhD—President of Global Financial Data
“Winans International provides excellent information on preferred stocks.”
Matt Krantz—Financial Markets Reporter, USA Today
Author of Investing Online for Dummies
Investment Atlas
Financial Maps to Investment Success
2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
WINNER—Finance
FINALIST—Business, Best Overall Design Non-fiction, Coffee Table Book, History/Historical Non-Fiction
We have all heard the phrase “History repeats itself!” Yet very few people seriously apply long-term history to the art and science of investing.
There is no better example of this than how the majority of modern investors, the most knowledgeable and technologically advanced in history, mishandled the dot.com bull market and the prolonged bear market that followed. Throughout the 1990s, the phrase “It’s different this time!” was repeated by Wall Street’s elite analysts, and investors blindly kept buying stocks and mutual funds throughout 1999 and 2000, ignorant of the fact that they were playing long Las Vegas odds of success and not even taking a Cliff Notes glance at the behavior of past bull markets.
Does this sound familiar? “The Federal Reserve is much blamed because it made money easy, and that easy money help to start the current investment boom. The real fault is that too many people are eager to grab something for nothing.” No, it wasn’t written in 1999 about technology stocks. It came out of a business publication in January 1929.
A picture tells a thousand words. The “pictures” in this book are primarily charts of past investment activity. This reference tool, disguised as a coffee table book, is filled with useful information about the performance and characteristics of stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, and collectibles since 1800.
$40 includes shipping
“Ken’s new book is the reference I have needed for years! It will stay close to my desk. Sometimes a good reference book is far more efficient and useful than wasting time on the web.”
John Knudsen, Dean, Texas A&M Foundation
“The book is beautiful! The audience loved the book. How could they not—it’s great!”
Matt Krantz, Senior Writer, USA Today
Preferreds
Wall Street’s Best-Kept Income Secret
WINNER—Business: Investing, USA Book News Awards
As the “baby boom” generation enters retirement, they are told in unison by legions of financial advisors that they must reallocate a significant portion of their portfolios into income-producing investments to generate the earnings they will need to live on during retirement. This investment shift has also been traditionally recommended to better secure the value of a retirement portfolio due to the protections offered by the issuers of these income investments.
It’s easy to see the massive rush toward income investments from their strong performance since the so-called stock market “bubble” burst in 2000. Record numbers of consumers have been buying these little-understood investments, which many past investors considered to be downright boring.
Regrettably, many of these seasoned stock and real estate investors rushing into this sector of investing have failed to learn the time-proven rules of income investing and are making basic, and potentially dangerous, mistakes. Blunders such as chasing high-yield investments regardless of liquidity or maturity, believing that bonds and bond mutual funds are identical and provide similar results, grossly misusing performance statistics and agency ratings, and subscribing to a stubborn conviction that income investments are always safer and easier to understand than other investments can have grave consequences.
In fact, as an investor who has been working with income investments for 25 years, I can honestly say that the news, earnings projections, and advice from experts that we’re being barraged with 24 hours a day haven’t helped most investors to succeed.
To the contrary, the age old problems of successful investing still exist.
Ken wrote this book with a single objective in mind—to make sure you’re armed with useful information on how, why, and when to take advantage of preferred stocks.
Amazingly, this is the first book, since the 1930s, devoted to traditional preferred stocks—Wall Street’s best-kept secret in income investing. Although it’s a mystery why this time-tested investment medium has largely been overlooked, my hope is that the tips in this book will help readers navigate the world of preferred stocks and other income investments now and in the future.
No Longer in Print
“Informative, and practical, book! This book is outstanding for the professional and part-time investor. The techniques are clearly explained and illustrated and can be implemented by anyone in less than an hour on a weekend. Will it work in the next bear market? The only thing we know for sure is that a bear market will occur, and with preferred stock, any losses will be cushioned by dividend income.”
Mike Carr, CMT, Technically Speaking Magazine
Preferreds: It’s not if, but when you will own them!
Meet Ken Winans
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)™ and the Winans International Real Estate Index (WIREI)™ (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).
You can learn more about Ken books here and his company here.
How We Met
I was scheduled to be in a dentist chair in Spokane, Washington. Instead I was in California on a Southwest flight from Oakland to Ontario for a meeting. Ken and I sat in the same row and instead of working as we’d both planned, we chatted. Long story short, over the next couple of years we cocreated his first three books. Love the Divine sychronicity.
