Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, is an active trader. She frequently buys her favorite stocks when they fall and sells them when they rise.
That’s what she just did, buying into two hot stocks that have been struggling for a while.
Wood’s funds have experienced a volatile ride this year, swinging from sharp losses to strong gains.
In January and February, the Ark funds rallied as investors bet on the Trump administration’s potential deregulation that could benefit Wood’s tech bets. But the momentum faded in March and April, with the funds trailing the market as top holdings slid amid growing concerns over the macroeconomy and trade policies.
Now, the Ark’s funds are showing solid performance again. As of Sept. 5, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 30.8% year-to-date, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 10.2% gain.
Wood’s remarkable return of 153% in 2020 helped build her reputation and attract loyal investors. Her strategy can lead to sharp gains during bull markets but also painful losses, like in 2022, when ARKK dropped more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Sept. 4, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of negative 2.4%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 15.4% over the same period.
Over the past 12 months through Sept. 4, the Ark Innovation ETF saw about $1.5 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.Image source: Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Wood’s investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically buy shares in emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics.
She thinks these companies have the potential to reshape industries and bring outsized long-term returns, but their volatility leads to major fluctuations in Ark funds’ values.
Over the 10 years ending in 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to an analysis by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s ranking.
Still, Wood has been bullish on the market. In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026 and struck an optimistic tone for tech stocks.
“During the current turbulent transition in the U.S., we think consumers and businesses are likely to accelerate the shift to technologically enabled innovation platforms including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing,” she said.
Not all investors share this optimism. Over the past 12 months through Sept. 4, the Ark Innovation ETF saw about $1.5 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood is doubling down on the market’s most closely watched new listings.
On Sept. 4, Wood’s ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) fund purchased 108,238 shares of Figma Inc. (FIG) , a stake worth about $5.94 million. That followed earlier buying of another 113,605 shares of Figma in August.
Figma provides a cloud-based design platform that lets teams build and prototype apps and websites in real time. The company went public on July 31 in one of the year’s biggest market debuts.
Its IPO was priced at $33 a share, but investor enthusiasm sent the stock soaring. Shares opened at $85 and closed the first day at $115.50, valuing Figma at more than $60 billion, which was nearly three times the price Adobe agreed to pay in a failed acquisition attempt back in 2022.
That surge left expectations sky-high heading into earnings.
On Sept. 3, Figma reported second-quarter revenue of $249.6 million, up 41% from a year earlier. The company posted a $28.2 million profit, breakeven on a per-share basis, reversing a $827.9 million loss a year ago.
For the third quarter, Figma expects revenue of $263 to $265 million, up about 33% and above Wall Street’s estimate of $256.8 million. Full-year revenue was guided for $1.02 billion, slightly topping the $1.01 billion consensus. Still, the guidance may have disappointed investors’ high expectations, according to Wood.
“The stock’s speculative surge after its initial public offering set the company up for this reaction,” Wood explained the post-earnings tumble in a recent letter to investors.
Figma stock has tumbled 35.5% since its IPO.
Aside from Figma, Wood has also bought Bullish (BLSH) , another August IPO that’s already down 45% from its debut.
Wood’s Ark funds picked up 143,906 shares of Bullish on Sept. 5. That chunk of stocks is valued at $7.53 million.
Bullish is a cryptocurrency exchange operator and owns media outlet CoinDesk. Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel is one of its backers.
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The company went public on Aug. 13, pricing at $37 a share. The stock briefly surged above $100 during its first trading day but then lost momentum as enthusiasm cooled.
In July, President Donald Trump signed a law to establish a regulatory regime for dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins, marking a huge win for crypto supporters, including Wood.
For Wood, the bet on Bullish fits her broader push into digital assets. According to Ark Invest’s white paper, the firm now recommends a 19.4% allocation to Bitcoin, a significant increase from its 2023 recommendation of 6.2%.
