At the start of 2021, Ark Investled by a technology investor Cathie Boishas managed a whopping $59 billion across six funds, making it the largest fund in the world. the largest active ETF manager.
Three years later, a significant decline of 80% occurred, with the assets under management of these funds dropping to just $11.1 billion. This decline can be attributed to a combination of factors, including high interest rates that dampened Wood’s long-term speculative technology investments and the wave of exits by disillusioned investors that followed.
To give an idea of the scale, investors had withdrawn a substantial $2.24 billion from Wood’s actively managed funds by the end of the third week of April 2024, almost triple the outflows seen throughout long from 2023.
In particular, Ark’s flagship fund, the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK), has seen capital outflows exceeding $1.3 billion in less than four months this year, far surpassing the $578 million seen in 2023.
Below is a breakdown of fund flows for Ark’s actively managed ETFs in 2024 versus 2023:
|
Actively managed ARK ETF |
Fund flow for the year 2024 |
Fund flow 2023 |
|---|---|---|
|
ARK Innovation ETF |
-1.37B |
-578.15M |
|
ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE:ARKW) |
-211.66M |
-63.93M |
|
ETF ARK Genomic Revolution (BATS:ARKG) |
-363.74M |
40.41M |
|
ETF ARK Fintech Innovation (NYSE:ARKF) |
-144.93M |
-58.26M |
|
ARK Autonomous Technology and Robotics ETF (BATS:ARKQ) |
-126.76M |
-53.14M |
|
ETF ARK Space Exploration and Innovation (BATS:ARKX) |
-21.97M |
-42.23M |
|
Total |
2.24B |
755.3 million |
Source: VettaFi
“Loyal shareholders have become frustrated” Todd Rosenbluthhead of research at the data provider VettaFisaid The Wall Street Journal.
Despite Ark’s promising growth prospects and disruptive technology investing style this year, Rosenbluth said the funds’ heavy concentration in underperforming companies remains a concern.
With the sole exception of Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) and Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD), none of the other top 10 holdings in the Ark Innovation ETF generated positive returns in 2024.
|
Name |
Weight |
Back |
|
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) |
9.38% |
35.60% |
|
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) |
9:32 a.m. |
-41.76 |
|
Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROKU) |
8.27 |
-33.26 |
|
Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) |
6.98 |
-4.80 |
|
UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) |
5.69 |
-9:46 p.m. |
|
CRISPR Therapeutics SA (NASDAQ:CSRP) |
4.92 |
-7.28 |
|
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) |
4.50 |
-3:59 p.m. |
|
Roblox Company (NYSE:RBLX) |
4.47 |
-7:14 p.m. |
|
Robinhood Markets, Inc. |
4.21 |
38.85 |
|
Unity Software Inc. (NYSE:U) |
3.33 |
-43.14 |
Data as of April 23, 2024
Short strategies on Cathie Wood’s Ark funds emerge
The underperformance of Cathie Wood’s actively managed funds prompted other ETF issuers to undertake short strategies on Ark ETFs.
AXS Investments launched the AXS Short Innovation Daily ETF (NASDAQ: SARK) at the end of 2021, which bypasses Wood’s flagship product, ARKK…
