“‘I’ve never been in a market that is up — has appreciated — and our strategies are down…That has never happened before.’”
That’s Cathie Wood explaining, during a Bloomberg TV interview, the challenges the star fund manager has been facing in recent weeks, as her suite of technology-centric exchange-traded funds experience a swoon following a stellar performance in 2020.
At last check, the ARK Innovation ETF ARKK,
The large-cap tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index NDX,
“‘When we go through a period like this, of course we are going through soul-searching, saying ‘are we missing something?’”
ARK’s seven ETFs returned an average of 141% in 2020, on the back of gains from companies such as Tesla Inc. TSLA, 0.37%, and Teladoc Health Inc. TDOC, -1.25%, cementing the investor’s clout on Wall Street.
However, her strategy of doubling down on losers and investing in disruptive technology hasn’t resulted in similarly strong returns this year—quite the contrary.
The flagship Ark Innovation fund is down 38% since its Feb. 15 peak, for example.
