Cathie Wood is a founder of $60 Billion Assets ARK Invest which invests in self driving cars and genomics. She is also an undoubted believer of the electric car company, Tesla which she hopes someday will be valued at $3 Trillion.
Her flagship $23 Billion assets Ark Innovation Fund has returned an average of 45% annually over the past five years. She studied economics at USC under Art Laffer, the inventor of the Laffer Curve, which theorizes the connection between tax rates and tax revenue. She serves as the chief executive and chief investment officer of ARK’s exchange traded funds.
What is Cathie Wood Known For?
Cathie Wood is known for making bets and investments in companies which are working for artificial intelligence and genome sequencing to robotics, blockchain, and clean energy. This is collectively called disruptive technology. She believes that this technology will improve people’s income.
The term disruptive innovation was coined by a faculty at Harvard Business School and it appeared first in Harvard Business Review Publication in 1995 to describe any condition in which the industry is shaken up.
Tesla developed electric vehicles on a large scale at the time when the auto industry is still focused on producing vehicles with internal combustion engines. So this is disruptive innovation.
She is also known for her decisions and accomplishments. In 2014, she founded ARK, which is an investment management firm. She has been named on Forbes 50 over 50 list. She also became #80 America’s Self Made Woman in 2020. She has given such a revolutionized idea to the investing world.
Wood had an extensive background and awareness for identifying the emerging trends. She took another huge step with the launch of ETF, which tracks innovations such as robotics, intelligence, and 3D printing.
Cathie’s career as an economist led to her interest in and ability to predict stock trends. After leaving the position at AllianceBernstein, an investment company, Wood founded Ark Invest.
How did Cathie Wood Get Her Start?
Wood graduated from the University of Southern California in 1981 with the bachelor’s of science degree in finance and economics. After graduating, she worked in investment management at many notable firms for many years.
Over a period of 18 years, she climbed the heights of the corporate world from portfolio manager to managing director. She also founded the hedge fund with LiliC.Wang in 1998 called Tupelo Capital Management. The fund has approximately $1.4 Billion in assets under management, making it one of the biggest ETFs in the U.S.
She as a portfolio manager focused on thematic investing which is a strategy based on investing in trends that gives good results in the long run, besides investing in particular companies. She also carried the thematic strategy to ARK with the theme of disruptive innovation.
Cathie Wood’s Net Worth
According to Forbes, Wood’s net worth was $140 Million in 2021. Some other media outlets peg her 2023 net worth at $250 Million to $300 Million.
She is also an active philanthropist. She has supported different causes including educational reform, literacy related to finance and also worked for environmental causes. She is Working on the board of directors presently, for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and UCLA Anderson School of Management.
What is ARK?
ARK is the abbreviation for active research knowledge. The company’s website refers to ACTIVE management to capitalize on the fast change that innovation creates, an open RESEARCH ecosystem that does not focus on geographies, sectors, and market caps and lastly KNOWLEDGE to gain a deeper understanding of the areas of researching and investing.
This fund-management firm buys shares in publicly traded companies and some of the ETFs are listed on the all electronic exchange NYSE Area.
The objective is an actively managed Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that seeks long term growth of capital by investing under normal circumstances primarily in foreign and domestic equity securities of companies that are relevant to the Fund’s investment theme of disruptive innovation.
Disruptive technology is ARK’ main focus. The companies within ARK include those that rely on benefits from the development of new products or services, technological improvements and development in scientific research associated with the area of DNA Technologies, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and the next generation Internet.
How Does Cathie Wood Make Her Money
The management fees of ARK is 0.75%. This means $7.5 Million for every $1 Billion invested.
In 2020 Barron’s reported that 50% to 75% of ARK is owned by Cathie. That means based on 0.75% expense, she would have taken home $3.75 Million to $5.63 Million for every $1 Billion in assets before taxes. According to Zillow, Cathie has a home at Wilton, Connecticut worth $1 Million.
Wood also earns via investments in a wide range of industries and companies. She is noted for early investments in Tesla, Apple, and Square.
How ARK Funds Performed?
ARK’s funds have shown volatility since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The ETF rose steadily in market value through 2020 before reaching a record high in ealy 2021.
Since its listing in October 2014 to the end of 2022, the fund lost 53% compared to 92% gain in the S&P 500 Index. In the first half of 2023, the fund has been on a rebound, gaining 41%.
What is Cathie Wood’s Investment Strategy?
Wood focuses on growth. Her friends invest in shares of companies that focus on growing their business even though they may likely be not profitable in the short term.
Wood focuses on five areas of innovation like artificial intelligence, robotics, DNA sequencing and blockchain technology.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/11/12/cathie-wood-know-the-ark-invest-ceo-strategies-to-observe/