Cathie Wood’s flagship fund has spent more than a decade failing to beat her two most obvious benchmarks.
Her multi-billion dollar ARKK fund, which launched on October 31, 2014, has trailed the S&P 500’s total return, and BTC, since inception.
Even investors who might have tried to time their entries and exits out of Wood’s funds would have had a difficult time finding a slice of outperformance, as Ark Invest also underperformed most calendar years across that timespan.
It was easy for ARKK to outperform BTC during particularly bad years for the asset. For example, it crashed 73% in 2018 or -67% in 2022.
However, Wood’s pro-Tesla, pro-BTC, pro-AI, and pro-gene editing fund failed to beat its benchmarks over the long haul.
Cumulative returns over the full stretch, October 31, 2014 through yesterday’s close, are 318% for ARKK, 23,214% for BTC, and 367% for the S&P 500 with dividends reinvested.
Trailing the market despite a decade of work
Although it’s embarrassing for any fund manager to work full-time for a decade only to trail a passive, labor-free investment in the S&P 500, ARKK’s 49% shortfall actually fails to illustrate how bad the past five years has felt for investors in Wood’s ETF.
On February 16, 2021, ARKK peaked at $159.70 per share, a price it’s never reattained. Since that date, ARKK has lost 46% of its value whereas the S&P 500 has gained 65%.
From the start of 2022, ARKK has trailed the S&P by 80%. Since the start of 2023, 60%. Since 2024, 8%.
Over the past five years, ARKK’s has declined 28% while the S&P has rallied 72%.
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Cathie Wood dreamed big, failed to win
Wood’s investment strategy concentrates on a rotating list of “disruptive innovation” stocks.
The fund gained 152% in 2020 but lost 67% in 2022.
Morningstar ranked ARK Investments first among fund families for shareholder value destruction over the decade through 2023, estimating Wood’s family of funds wiped out roughly $14.3 billion and more than double the loss of the second-worst fund management firm on the list that year.
Wood has also been an outspoken BTC bull while underperforming BTC by miles. She’s published stratospheric, imaginary BTC price targets of $1 million, $1.2 million, and $1.5 million.
ARKK holds BTC price exposure and crypto equities including Coinbase, and ARK also co-sponsors a spot BTC ETF. However, ARKK’s own total return has still fallen short of BTC’s in most years since 2015, even as Wood’s firm bet heavily on the sector.
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