Investment Insight

Updates and articles on timely topics from the Investment Team.

The Index Bogeyman

Adam Hoffmann, CFP^®, AIF^®
Chief Investment Officer
Published October 30, 2019

Index funds are receiving increased attention, mostly centered on the virtues of low-cost and broadly diversified vehicles for accessing stock and bond markets. In a competition in which one side’s success is another side’s loss, it’s not surprising to hear active managers railing against passive investing. Some claim that increased usage of index funds is distorting market prices. The Carlson Capital Management team firmly believes that markets continue to work and investors can still rely on ... [Continue Reading]

Mosquitoes and BBQ’s: Minnesota Twins and Equity Market Highs

Adam Hoffmann, CFP^®, AIF^®
Chief Investment Officer
Published July 19, 2019

Summer is here once again with its ubiquitous combinations like mosquitoes and barbeques, lightning and thunder, swimming pools and sunshine. One exciting pairing for 2019 that has been far less common, in fact it hasn’t happened since the early 1990s, is an American League-leading Minnesota Twins and equity market all-time highs. As a lifelong Minnesota sports fan, and having experienced what felt like greatness coming up short one too many times, it’s easy to be conditioned to feel that the ... [Continue Reading]

Investment Insight: A Ten-Year Look Back

Gregory Carlson, CFP^®
CEO and Founder
Published May 2, 2019

March 9, 2009, is an important day in our shared history. We didn’t necessarily know it at the time as it took a few months for the significance of the day to reveal itself, but it was on this date when the financial markets hit rock bottom during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). From that day forward the markets stopped their painful retreat and began to recover. That was ten years ago now, and as we reflect on those ten years, of course there are countless learnings and insights that could ... [Continue Reading]

Looking Back at Ten Years Since the Market Bottom of March 9, 2009

James Michael Yaworski, CFA
Senior Investment Strategist
Published March 8, 2019

The S&P 500, an index that tracks the performance of large U.S. company stocks, has delivered 9.99% average annual returns since 1926 1 . We know that this terrific performance is compensation to investors for taking on risk, and that returns weren’t achieved in a slow and steady manner. Investors don’t have to look too far back in time to remember the poor performance of the tech bubble in the early 2000s or the financial crisis of 2008. In fact, the 10-year annual return of the S&P ... [Continue Reading]

Investment Insight: The Evidence-Based Value of Owning a Globally Diversified Portfolio

Gregory Carlson, CFP^®
CEO and Founder
Published January 25, 2019

As we all observed and experienced, the close of 2018 brought an unsettling time in the equity markets. Markets historically don’t respond favorably to uncertainty, be it financial, political or social, and recent volatility appears to be tied to a host of uncertainties. Many individual investors react to uncertainty based on emotion, even though we’ve seen throughout the history of the market how important it is that investors don’t allow emotion to influence decisions. Throughout recent market ... [Continue Reading]