Words: Tom Ward
It’s been a rocky year for Catherine Wood’s Ark fund. In March, a Yahoo finance story ran with the headline ‘Why Cathie Wood’s once hot Ark Innovation ETF has lost all its 2021 gains’. In the piece Brian Sozzi, that publication’s editor at large wrote that “What goes up in the stock market inevitably goes down” noting that Wood’s Ark Invest fund had been “one of the hottest ETFs of 2020.” Sozzi goes on to note that in early March Wood’s fund had lost “all of its gains for 2021” when the the ETF shed 5.5%.
It wasn’t just one poor month, however. Ark’s run of bad luck has continued throughout summer. According to a report by the Times, Ark Innovation is now down by almost 4 per cent while the Nasdaq has risen by 14 per cent in the same period.
Now, experts are lining up to question Wood’s previously on-the-money insight. Like sharks around a floundering ship, short sellers are gathering. Most notable of all is Michael Burry — the subject of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short and the film of the same name. Portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 film, Burry made his name by betting against the housing bubble leading up to the 2007 market crash.
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