Catherine Wood is a renowned investor and portfolio manager best known as the founder and CEO of ARK Invest, one of the fastest growing and most successful investment management firms. Wood is one of the most innovative investors: her fund invests heavily in disruptive technologies, such as genomics or artificial intelligence.
In this article, we will provide a brief overview of Wood's bio and discuss his investment strategy to understand how he managed to become so rich and famous.
Short biography
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1955, Wood graduated with a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Southern California. He worked in the Capital Group for three years and then moved to New York to join Jennison Associates. Wood worked there for eighteen years and established his reputation as a professional investor. In 1998 he co-founded Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund. Its real success, however, was ARK Invest, an investment fund founded by Wood in 2014.
How did he make money?
Wood's father was a radar systems engineer and taught him a lot about technologies. In 2001 he started working for Alliance Bernstein, where he proposed the creation of a specialized ETF entirely focused on innovative technologies. However, this proposal was rejected and Cathie Wood left the company to create her own fund.
Wood began to invest heavily in shares of innovative companies with great disruptive potential - for example, he bought many shares of Tesla when they were still up. Although some experts criticize Wood for having too many overvalued stocks in her portfolio, she is widely known as a successful stock picker and her fund is considered to be one of the largest female-managed funds by overall net worth. Wood has a net worth of around $ 150 million and ARK Invest has around $ 60 billion in assets.
Investment strategy
Basically, Wood invests in innovative technologies that can shape the future: genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, blockchain, etc. He strongly believes that Bitcoin is undervalued and supports innovations that can reduce costs and lead to breakthroughs in various industries. However, Wood is fully aware that innovations are risky, which is why he advises inexperienced investors to diversify their portfolios and calculate each company's growth potential before investing.