It's quite apparent that genius also comes with servings of eccentricity and unorthodox thinking. People's thinking about these figures also tends to fluctuate depending on the performance and stock price of the companies they founded. We see this time and time again whether we are talking about Elon Musk or Warren Buffett or in today's case, Cathie Wood.
All of these characteristics are evident in Cathie Wood's rise and now fall from grace. The best way to display it is through the stock chart of the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK) which was one of the best-performing ETFs from its inception to early 2021. However, it's now down more than 70% from its highs and seems destined to re-test its lows from early May.
What's interesting is that despite this steep decline and the disappointing results of many of the companies that are owned by ARKK, she really hasn't adjusted her thinking or even acknowledged potential mistakes. This is evident from her commentaries, positions, and her public interviews.
This includes the launch of her new fund, the Ark Venture Fund. It will deploy about 70% of its assets into private companies and the other 30% into public ones. It's being marked as giving individual investors access to venture capital and other private companies which are mostly only available to institutions or high net worth investors. It's estimated that the fund will have a total expense ratio of 4.2%.
In her interviews to promote the launch of the new fund, she has been outspoken that the Fed is committing a policy error by raising rates so aggressively. She says there is significant deflation in the pipeline and that the Fed is underestimating the impact on the economy from its actions.
She also continues to focus on the long-term potential of the growth stocks owned by ARK and was dismissive about concerns that many of these stocks will never get back to previous highs, similar to the dot-com bubble. Currently, some of her largest holdings include Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), Zoom Video (Nasdaq: ZM), and Roku (Nasdaq: ROKU).