Cathie Wood's Ark ETF Kinda Blows Up

Thomas Ott -

I have no ill will toward Cathie Wood or her Ark funds. I just find it funny that a lot of the high profile traders and investors tend to blow up. Sometimes by a lot.

Ark Invest was all the rage in 2020 and 2021, when its concentrated bets on highly speculative technology companies paid off in a big way thanks to low interest rates and a boom in risk appetite among retail investors.

Yeah, the easy money to invest was before the Fed raised rates, so you can leverage and speculate real easy when the money is flowing. Not so much when the money dries up.

The ARKK ETF destroyed $7.1 billion in wealth, while its healthcare-focused ARK Genomic ETF destroyed $4.2 billion in wealth, according to Morningstar.

Sucks to be an investor in her ETF right now but it has made money in the past, just not as much as if you had invested in the QQQs.

The ARKK ETF has generated a total positive return of 121.8% since its inception in 2014, which is less than half the Nasdaq 100's gain of 329.5% over the same time period. Meanwhile, the ARKK ETF is still down 71% from its record high. - via Market Insider

It's very hard to game the market and many times its best to just put all your money into index funds. They only way you can make money in this place is to:

  1. Be first,
  2. Be smarter, or
  3. Cheat.

Being first with technology can make you sick money but it's a helluva risky bet. Cathie might be down but don't count her out yet. In the mean time NVDA and the QQQs look real good.