Prior to his academic career, Goetzmann worked as an archaeologist, a writer and producer of PBS documentaries, and served as the director of the American Museum of Western Art in Denver, Colorado during 1984–85.

[3] His research focuses on asset management, investor behavior, and the history of global capital markets.

[4] Following the 2008 financial crisis, Goetzmann co-authored a 2009 research report with Andrew Ang and Stephen Schaefer for the Norwegian Ministry of Finance evaluating the sovereign wealth fund's use of active management.

[5] This research provided ground-breaking recommendations on the use of factor investing for institutional portfolios.

[6][7] In 2020, he was featured in the newsletter, Yale Insights, with an article and a video that focus on the global financial bubbles that have occurred since the one that crashed in 1720.