Cathie Wood’s True Believers Are Sticking With Her
While many investors bought high, minimal outflows show that ARK Innovation’s fans still have faith.
By the time the mania surrounding ARK Investment Management peaked last year, investors had pumped a staggering $42 billion into its exchange-traded funds. What’s more incredible: Three-quarters of those inflows are still there today.
After a stellar 2020 in which it outshone just about everyone on Wall Street, ARK’s had a brutal 12 months. Its flagship fund, the ARK Innovation ETF, has plunged more than 45% because of its big bets on speculative technology-related companies. The S&P 500 index has returned about 20% over the same period. Manager and ARK founder Cathie Wood is perhaps best known for her huge commitment to Tesla Inc., and that stock is still positive compared with a year ago. But other top holdings including streaming device maker Roku, crypto exchange Coinbase Global, and virtual health-care provider Teladoc Health have tumbled.