Cathie Wood
Who is Cathie Wood?
Cathie Wood is one of the richest self-made-woman according to Forbes magazine. She is the CEO and CIO of Ark Invest. He is one of the most respected voices in the crypto space.
What is Ark Invest and why does it stand out?
It is an investment manager founded in 2014 by Cathie Wood. Its fame is due to its unique strategies, through disruptive innovation.
The company believes and believed since its inception that the technological impact and its advances are fundamental for companies. His investment philosophy is based on the fact that some companies will have a strong impact in the future and will change the known world.
To make these investments, Ark designs thematic ETFs, with different strategies from the conventional ones. The analyzes carried out by the company are not based on the financial sphere, but on the technological one.
Another factor to highlight about the company is that its research and projects are transparent and for everyone since they are published and anyone can have access. In this way, it plays a more active role in and with the scientific community.
-
Timeline
1955
NOVEMBERCatherine Duddy Wood (born November 26, 1955) is an American investor and the founder, CEO and CIO of Ark Invest, an investment management firm.
1974
In 1974, Wood graduated from Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles, an all-girls Catholic high school.
1977
In 1977, via her mentor Arthur Laffer, Wood got a job as an assistant economist at Capital Group, where she worked for three years.
1980
In 1980, she moved to New York City to take a job at Jennison Associates as chief economist, analyst, portfolio manager and managing director.
1980
In the early 1980s, she debated Henry Kaufman on why she believed interest rates had peaked.
1981
In 1981, Wood graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and economics.
1998
In 1998, along with Lulu C. Wang, Wood co-founded Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund based in New York City.
2001
In 2001, she joined AllianceBernstein as chief investment officer of global thematic strategies, where she worked for 12 years, managing $5 billion.
2007
She was criticized for performing worse than the overall market during the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
2014
In 2014, after her idea for actively managed exchange-traded funds based on disruptive innovation was deemed too risky by AllianceBernstein, Wood left the company and founded Ark Invest.
2018
She is divorced from Robert Wood, who died in 2018.
2018
In 2018, she donated funds to her high school to start the Duddy Innovation Institute, which encourages girls to study disruptive innovation.
2018
FEBRUARYWood received considerable media attention in February 2018 after she stated on CNBC that she believed Tesla stock could reach a price of $4,000 in five years, a 1,100% increase from its price at the time, and reiterated the claim in May 2019 after its price had dropped 29%.
2020
Wood was named the best stock picker of 2020 by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief emeritus Matthew A. Winkler.
2020
Wood is a devout Christian, and supported Donald Trump’s presidential re-election in 2020.
2020
NOVEMBERIn November 2020, she stated she believed bitcoin could reach a price of $500,000.
2021
JANUARYWhile Wood’s statement was widely ridiculed at the time, Tesla’s price reached her target on a split-adjusted basis two years early in January 2021.
2021
MARCHAs of March 2021, two funds run by Wood were on the list of the 10 largest female-run funds by total net assets.
Training
In 1981, Cathie graduated from the University of Southern California, with a degree in finance and economics. Her career as an economist began at Capital Group, and upon graduation, she was hired by Jennison Associates LLC as an economist.
Then in 2001, she moved to New York where she was appointed CIO of AllianceBernstein for thematic research strategies and portfolio management.
Cathie found flaws within these companies so she took matters into her own hands and in 2014 founded Ark, Active Research Knowledge, in order to share research to improve understanding of what they are researching and investing in. In the first two years Ark was facing tough times financially, so Cathie decided to partner with two firms, American Beacon and Nikko Asset Management. And from that moment it did not stop growing in a short time, by 2017 the assets of the manager had multiplied by 10.
Cathie Wood’s methodology
Use crowdsourcing, distributed open collaboration instead of centralization of the task, to get better and more perspectives.
When building portfolios, Cathie monitors all interruptions or variations and then takes action from a top-down approach.
Wood refuses to accept projects that within 5 years do not have the potential to grow 15%.
His prediction about Tesla
Cathie evaluated Tesla as a company of 1.4 trillion dollars in 4 years, assuming that the price of each share would be valued at 6 thousand dollars. In 2020, this prediction started to pay off as they increased market share 10 times.
Impact
Cathie made her way among the important companies and managers on her own, using different methods than the conventional ones and betting on technology and innovation. Now companies are proactively following her on Twitter and looking to work with her to boost their business.
Faced with the pandemic, Cathie predicted that technology companies would have an advantage over others, and they would also depend on high-growth technology companies. And that the companies that adapted to the context of the pandemic would increase their growth fivefold.
Its importance to the Crypto world
She is a very important personality in the world of cryptocurrencies, being an investment fund manager with tremendous success and performance, her commitment and support strengthens the crypto world.
His voice is among the most respected in the industry, and his interventions drive the market and adoption of Bitcoin. In July 2021 he participated in a historic debate for the crypto space together with Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Elon Musk, of Tesla, called “The B Word”.
As a driver of new technologies, one of the biggest changes that occurred today is cryptocurrencies. Cathie is not far behind, she recommends and invests in Bitcoin. Also, there is currently talk that his Ark team is creating an ETF (bitcoin exchange-traded).
Ark partnered with 21Shares, and they founded the “Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF”. It aims to track the performance of Bitcoin through its investments.