Investments

Are You Not Entertained?

“Are you not entertained?” Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator (2000) after he quickly disposes of all of his opponents in the arena Are we having fun yet? Let’s just start with the KOSPI in South Korea. It had outright crashed to the tune of 44%, until Friday, when it soared a record 17%! …

Ryan Detrick

July 31, 2026

The Fed’s Going to Let It Run Hot (Until They Don’t)

Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Chris Waller recently said that sternly staring at inflation until it melts before our withering gaze is not an option. Yet that appears to be exactly what the Fed plans to do. The Fed kept rates unchanged at its July meeting in a 9-3 vote, with three dissents showing the committee …

Sonu Varghese

July 30, 2026

Course Management and Investing

If you know me, you know I’ve gotten deep into golf over the past couple of years. Probably deeper than my handicap justifies. However, playing golf allowed something to click that I hadn’t expected to think about on a golf course related to the investment universe. I spend my working hours looking at market data. …

Harry McDonald

July 29, 2026

Welcome to the Chip Crash (FvF Ep. 198)

In this episode of Facts vs Feelings, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, and Sonu Varghese, Chief Macro Strategist at Carson Group, dig into Apple reclaiming its title as the world’s largest company by market cap after sitting out the AI spending race, while hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft pour ever-larger sums …

Ryan Detrick

July 29, 2026

Earnings Check-In: Alphabet…

Welcome to Carson Investment Research’s Earnings Check-In for the week ending July 24, 2026. This series is built weekly from FactSet’s Earnings Insight report (John Butters, VP, Senior Earnings Analyst with FactSet), with index weights and market caps sourced from YCharts, and aggregation performed in-house. We tie every figure to FactSet’s published numbers, then add …

Harry McDonald

July 28, 2026

Charts of the Week: July 20-24

Thanks for reading this week’s Charts of the Week This week’s charts cover the recent Oil spike, the Fed’s rate decision, sector dispersion, and how the banking sector is doing just fine right now. We’ll keep publishing Charts of the Week every Monday (even though today is Tuesday!) To view this week’s Charts of the …

Carson Research

July 28, 2026

If The Fed Can’t Print Oil or Chips, Why Are We Talking About Rate Hikes

The Federal Reserve’s next meeting is this week (July 27-29th), and the level of uncertainty around what they may do is the highest we’ve seen in recent years, especially this close to a meeting. The probability of a rate increase is 37% (as priced by the futures market), which is as good as a coin …

Sonu Varghese

July 28, 2026

Non-Earners Have Led Small Caps

In my opinion one of the most important factors in assessing an investment’s performance, especially an active manager’s, is understanding the market environment in which the performance came from.  Knowing what sectors, industries, styles, and segments of the market capitalization spectrum performed strongly or poorly relative to the broad markets is the first step in …

Carson Research

July 27, 2026

ROCs & SOCs – The AI CapEx Debate

As technology earnings season approaches, investors face historic dispersion in returns. The receivers of capital (“ROCs”) of this hyperscale-led capital spending boom are vastly outperforming the spenders of capital (“SOCs”). In my opinion, this widening dispersion could bring about a narrative change within this debate. Positive Correlation ROCs and SOCs can live harmoniously. For the …

Blake Anderson

July 24, 2026

Valuations Are High – Should You Sell?

I write about valuations quite a bit (born and raised in Buffett’s backyard after all), but outside of our industry it is rare that valuations are mentioned at a market or index level. Typically, when valuations do come up, it is for the wrong reasons – because they are high. We are seeing more and …

Grant Engelbart

July 23, 2026

The World Cup Is Over—and I’m Not Quite Ready to Move On

5 weeks, 48 teams, 104 games, a record-breaking 308 goals, 1 winner. Congratulations, Spain! The final was anti-climactic and, dare I say, boring, but the team that deserved to win did so.  Still, it was an amazing five weeks of entertainment, and now it feels like a hangover. I yearn for more, so I’m trying …

Sonu Varghese

July 22, 2026

JC Parets Returns (FvF Ep. 197)

In this episode of Facts vs Feelings, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, and Sonu Varghese, Chief Macro Strategist at Carson Group, welcome back JC Parets, founder of Trend Labs (formerly of All Star Charts), for a wide-ranging conversation on market breadth, momentum, and where the “dumb money” is currently making its biggest …

Ryan Detrick

July 22, 2026