Ken Winans left a promising career with Merrill Lynch and started Winans Investments in 1992 with only seven clients. He envisioned an independent advisory practice that would be different from other investment firms, with a view of countering the impersonal, one-size-fits-all approach to investing.

By providing innovative investment solutions, made possible through his own research, he believed he could design individual portfolios to meet the individual needs of each client. Today, Winans Investments is a top-rated investment management firm managing equity, fixed-income and commodity portfolios for hundreds clients across America and still works with the original clients. In 2019, the International Association of Top Professionals named Mr. Winans, “Top Money Manager of the Decade”.

From the small mountain town of Big Bear Lake, CA, Ken started trading stocks as a 17-year old high school student after taking an economics class.

During his pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics at the University of San Diego, Ken earned his real estate license and worked part-time for California Brokers of San Diego. Later, at EF Hutton & Company, he conducted computerized stock selection for a 45-year veteran stock broker and competed in the 1986 U.S. Investing Championship. As a MBA student at the University of San Francisco working towards a master’s in finance, Ken joined the research department of Sutro & Company.

After completing his academic studies in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash, one of his former supervisors asked him to become technical analyst for the upstart Chicago-based Compass Investment Group. Each day, he worked with the firm’s traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in many different types commodity futures.

Ken joined Merrill Lynch & Company in 1990 as a Registered Investment Advisor and Commodity Trading Advisor and earned many awards & accolades for successfully increasing clientele. In 1992, he founded Winans Investments.

Books and Articles

Mr. Winans has written and published four award-winning books: “Investment Atlas II – Using History as a Financial Tool” (2019), “Preferred Stocks – The Art of Profitable Income Investing” (2010), “Investment Atlas – Financial Maps to Investment Success” (2008), “Preferreds – Wall Street’s Best-Kept Income Secret” (2007)

His books have won 46 honors in major international competitions. In 2019, The World Record Academy has recognized him as the most honored non-fiction author in the world. This literary accomplishment was considered such an achievement that The United States Senate awarded him a Certificate of Commendation.

He has also had much of his investment research published as headline articles by leading websites, magazines and newspapers. Since 2011, Mr. Winans has written over 43 articles as a contributing writer for Forbes.com. Several of these articles were honored by being named “Editor’s Pick”.

Financial Inventions:

Mr. Winans pioneered the development of five unique investment indexes (with 28 sub-indices) and technical trend indicator that are used by major financial and academic institutions Winans Legacy Stock Index (WILSI) in 2013, Winans Real Estate Index ™(WIREI™) in 2007, Winans Preferred Stock Index ®(WIPSI ®) in 2005 Winans Trend Indicator (Symbol: WTI) in 2002

Academic & Professional Credentials:

Mr. Winans holds a MBA in Finance from the University of San Francisco (1987), a BA in Business Economics from the University of San Diego with a minor in Military Science (ROTC) (1985) and is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) (2006) and served on the national board.

From 1996 to 2001, he also served as adjunct faculty member of the Graduate School of Business at St. Mary’s College of California teaching an investment management course he designed.

In 2004, the University of San Francisco named him one of its most celebrated graduates since its founding in 1854.

Ken is a longstanding and active member of The CFA Institute and CMT Association.

Ken is one of the few investment professionals dually licensed as an Registered Investment Advisor and Commodity Trading Advisor.

Philanthropy & Collections

For over 20 years, Ken has served as a trustee for several non-profit organizations such as: The W Foundation (Novato) and the Society of California Pioneers (San Francisco). He also served board terms for The Holland Society of New York, USS Hornet Museum (Alameda),The Museum of American Finance (New York City), San Francisco Fleet Week Association, Chabot Space & Science Center (Oakland), The University of San Francisco Alumni Association and The Institute of Ecolonomics (Ridgway, CO).

Space Exploration

As life-long space enthusiast, Ken has been able to amass one of the largest private collections of U.S., Russian and Soviet space exploration artifacts. These items range from spacesuits, a full-size Gemini capsule boilerplate and artifacts carried to the moon on the Apollo missions.

In 2002, he co-founded The W Foundation and donated most of the collection for the public education of the history and future benefits of space exploration through admission free exhibits. Many of these items are on permanent display at The Chabot Space & Science Center and The USS Hornet Museum. The organization had attracted legendary figures such as Apollo 12 Astronaut Dick Gordon, Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden, award-winning actor Bill Pullman and video game designer Will Wright to its Board of Advisors.

Ken saw the need to provide his local community with a new education venue free to the public. In 2011, he established a museum called, “The Space Station”. It was an innovation in museum exhibits in that dormant retail space was donated and volunteer staffed. It was unique in that visitors got to actually touch artifacts that made the long journey into space, and see photographs inscribed by the astronauts that told about their adventures in space exploration.

At the date of its closure in 2019, more than 147,000 visitors (including 22 astronauts) had visited the museum.

Financial History

An early indication that Ken Winans was destined for a career in investment management was his interest in family heirlooms several hundred years old that were business in nature.

Acquired through his career, the extensive collection includes an Edison ticker tape, stock certificates signed by John Rockefeller, Colonial real estate deeds, and bond indentures once owned by Andrew Carnegie. Many of these items have been on display at The Museum of American Finance in New York and the California Business Exhibit in the CFA office in San Francisco.

Personal & Pedigree

Ken is a long-time resident of the Bay Area. In his spare time, Ken travels internationally, rides motorcycles, snow skis and scuba dives. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Napa.

Mr. Winans is a direct descendant from one of America’s oldest families. He is a 12th generation American whose Dutch family first arrived and established colonies in New York and New Jersey in the 1600s. Several of his ancestors were Founding Fathers and were some of this nation’s first multimillionaires.

His mother’s Swedish family immigrated to California in the 1850s and soon became national leaders in science, architecture, agriculture and business.

She is a Bay Area native and has lived and worked here for most her life. She attended St Mary’s College graduating with a BS in Business Administration and Economics. After which she pursued her advance degree in London at the University of Westminster achieving her MSc in International Business Economics and is fluent in Spanish.

Stephanie is also highly involved in the Marin community where she resides. She is raising her two young sons in Novato. Her husband is a Bay Area fireman as well and a Marin native. She has coached high school girls’ basketball for 17 seasons, including at her alma mater Marin Catholic. Her family also has a charitable foundation that puts on an annual charity basketball tournament at Marin Catholic to raise money for scholarships for underprivileged students to attend MC.

Amy currently resides in Petaluma where she is raising her teenage son. Amy is highly involved in her son’s school and volunteers her time with his sports. When Amy has free time she enjoys running, traveling, spending time with her family and friends, and catching a sports game!

Brittany currently resides in Rohnert Park with her 3 kids. She is very active outside of work with her kids and has coached her daughter and son’s soccer teams for the past 5 years. Her kids are the one thing that keeps her going every day and the reason she works so hard.