[4] Payne is the chief executive officer and principal financial analyst of Wall Street Strategies,[5] a stock market research firm he founded in 1991.
[7] In 2007, Payne released his first book titled Be Smart, Act Fast, Get Rich: Your Game Plan for Getting It Right in the Stock Market.
[10] In July 2017, Payne was suspended by Fox Business pending an investigation after a former network guest, Scottie Nell Hughes, accused him of rape.
[11] Payne denied the charge, but acknowledged having had a three-year-long "romantic relationship" with Hughes before the accusation was made.
Hughes, who kept an apartment near Fox's Manhattan headquarters for the duration of the affair, claimed she believed it would help her obtain a permanent position at the network.