Cathie Wood

Who Is Cathie Wood?

Cathie Wood is the founder of ARK Invest, a company she established in 2014 after gaining experience at other investment firms. Her main objective was to create exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that bundle active stock portfolios. One of her notable accomplishments is the Ark Innovation Fund, which currently holds $23 billion in assets and has consistently delivered an average annual return of over 45 percent for the past five years.

Wood’s educational background includes studying economics at the University of Southern California under Art Laffer, a renowned economist known for developing the Laffer Curve. This curve illustrates the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. Additionally, Wood is a strong supporter of Elon Musk and holds the belief that his electric car company will eventually be valued at over $3 trillion.

Before 2020, Cathie Wood was relatively unknown, but she quickly gained recognition as a legendary investor in the stock market. Despite facing challenges with the ARK Innovation ETF and other ARK Invest exchange-traded funds last year, many investors still consider Wood an inspirational figure with a talent for identifying high-growth investment opportunities.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF was the top-performing U.S. equities fund in the previous year. She has also been a vocal advocate for Bitcoin, even in the face of negative developments such as China’s ban on the cryptocurrency. Wood sees these challenges as beneficial in the long run. Additionally, when Elon Musk criticized Bitcoin for its environmental impact, Wood remained supportive, emphasizing the transparency and potential economic empowerment that Bitcoin offers.

Through her company ARK Invest, Cathie Wood offers investment strategies for cryptocurrencies. ARK Invest believes that cryptocurrencies regulated by open-source networks will revolutionize monetary systems and methods of value storage and transfer. The company predicts that only a few cryptocurrencies will dominate the market, with their value and market share following a power-law distribution.

In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest announced its plans to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. This decision aligns with Wood’s longstanding support for Bitcoin, as she has been investing in bitcoin proxies from companies like Coinbase and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The ETF aims to track the performance of bitcoin and, if approved by the SEC, will be traded under the ticker symbol “ARKB.” The launch of the ETF is a collaboration between Ark Invest and 21Shares.