Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, often buys stocks when they dip and sells after strong runs.
She recently unloaded about $40 million from one of Ark’s top stocks as investors become more wary of a potential tech bubble.
Wood earned a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. Year to date, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF ( ARKK ) is up 39.54% since December 12, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 16.08% gain over the same period.
Wood’s style brings sweet gains in bull markets, but also painful losses in bear markets, as seen in 2022 when the Ark Innovation ETF fell more than 60%.
These swings affected her long-term results. As of Dec. 12, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -7.83%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 14.94% over the same period, according to Morningstar data.
Wood’s strategy is simple: Her Ark ETFs focus on emerging high-tech companies in areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology and robotics.
Wood sees these businesses as potential forces for big change and long-term growth, though their volatility often creates fluctuations in the value of Ark’s funds.
Related: Cathie Wood net worth: The Ark Invest CEO’s wealth and income
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to an analysis by Morningstar analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s ranking.
In October, Wood said in a CNBC interview that he expects to see a market “shaking up” as interest rates begin to rise.
Still, Wood believes in AI’s potential, dismissing talk of an “AI bubble” amid concerns about high valuations for tech stocks.
“I don’t think AI is in a bubble,” Wood said. “What I think is that from an enterprise perspective, it’s going to take some time for large corporations to get ready to transform … to really capitalize on the productivity gains that we think AI will unleash.”
Not all investors agree with Wood. In the 12 months through Dec. 10, the Ark Innovation ETF saw net outflows of about $1.19 billion, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
On December 12, Wood’s Ark funds sold 87,993 shares of Tesla Inc. (TSLA), valued at about $40.4 million, marking one of its largest recent divestitures. The move followed earlier sales of 47,456 Tesla shares on December 4, 5 and 8.
Wood increased its Tesla position in Q3 2025, adding about 512,000 shares. The move came after four consecutive quarters of sales, during which it unloaded 2.2 million Tesla shares from Q3 2024 to Q2 2025, according to Stockcircle data.