Charles V. Payne is the chief executive officer and principal analyst of Wall Street Strategies, Inc. (WSSI), which he founded in 1991. With less than $10,000.00 in start-up capital, and working from his apartment, he launched WSSI to provide a unique brand of stock market advice. Through this service, subscribers (money managers and individual investors) began to reap sizeable profits and the firm developed a national reputation as a provider of timely and effective equity analysis.   

Over the years WSSI has helped hundreds of thousands of registered subscribers, in more than 60 countries as well as several of the largest bank/brokerage firms and certain funds and private investment groups. 

Mr. Payne oversees a team of stock analysts that cover specific industry groups, in addition to monitoring the entire market and individual sectors on his own.   

Mr. Payne's passion for the stock market began when he was 14 years old, living in Harlem, and told his mother “One day I will work on Wall Street.” After serving four years in the US Air Force, Mr. Payne got his start on Wall Street in the research at EF Hutton in 1985.   

From there, he switched gears from analysis to becoming a broker at a boutique brokerage firm. 

During his early experience as a stockbroker, Mr. Payne had an epiphany that there was a serious need for truly independent and timely equity research and guidance. This led him to create Wall Street Strategies with the initial goal of helping individual stockbrokers. Later, the services of WSSI were made available to retail investors. 

Due to the success of his guidance and stock selections, Mr. Payne developed a reputation within the industry that soon caught the attention of the financial media. He began making regular guest appearances on CNBC, later CNN-FN, Bloomberg, and Fox News. 

On June 2, 2014, Fox Business Network launched Mr. Payne's new show “Making Money with Charles Payne” which is featured daily at 2 pm EST.  

Mr. Payne has published his three investing books, including his latest, “Unbreakable Investor” released on October 7, 2023.  (The other two books are “Unstoppable Prosperity” and “Act Fast, Be Smart and Get Rich.”) 

Mr. Payne was awarded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Man of the Year Award in 2009. 

Mr. Payne attended Minot State College and Central Texas College during his time in the Air Force and majored in criminal justice.