Top Criticisms of Ark Invest and Cathie Woods

Last year, Ark had it’s worst year on record and lost over 60% of its value. Since then, Ark has recovered a bit but there are a number of issues with the fund that persist. I’ve seen criticism that people like me are too hard on Cathie Woods and Ark Invest, but I don’t think we are hard enough. I effectively view her as a glorified gambler high on hopium. Here are some of my top criticisms of Ark:
Innovation is a moving target. Things that are disruptive do not stay that way as time goes on. Ark holdings like Coinbase, Roku, Teledoc, are these still considered innovative? Ark has strayed from high growth companies.
The companies in the portfolio don’t change very often.
Buying volatile companies before earnings.
The poor quality of their research and decision making ability. Ark publishes an annual research report that I would encourage everyone to read. It will make you question what they are smoking over at the Ark office.
Ark is effectively an actively managed sector fund. Why would people pay such a high premium for someone to effectively throw darts at a board with a list of stocks on it?
We are in an environment where interest rates will continue to rise unless there is an economic downturn. This is not an environment where you want to be investing in growth stocks. These are companies that need to borrow money to survive. Interest rates and time value of money will affect profitability of growth companies. Inflation is coming down because we are already in a recession.

Works Cited:
https://www.wsj.com/live-qa/bull-v-bear-cathie-wood-ark-innovation-fund/76E8013E-83B6-4F8A-923A-7EA34D2A72FD?mod=hp_featst_pos3