Cathie Wood’s ARKK has trailed BTC, S&P 500 since inception

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%.

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.