Investor Cathie Wood: a story of success and determination
Investor Cathie Wood is a unique individual who has shown by example that there is no such thing as “too late” on the road to success. She owns ARK Invest, which is considered one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Wood implemented her own idea of exchange-traded funds, in which no one but her believed.
Cathie earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance in 1981. While at university, she interned at the Capital Group fund, and after graduation went to work at Jennison Associates, where she stayed for 18 years. Wood was engaged in market analysis by companies that provided wireless communication services. Studying the data, Cathie noticed that with the increase in the number of mobile device users there were more different changes from a social and economic point of view.
In 2001, Wood began working at AllianceBernstein, and after a while she took over as head of its investment department. She had $5 billion in capital under her management. After 10 years at the firm, Cathie pitched the idea to management to organize a managed exchange-traded fund, or ETF. It was to focus on securities of innovative companies. However, management did not appreciate such a proposal, especially since after the financial crisis, the returns of such funds were lower than those of index funds. Therefore, many investors focused on the latter.
Despite the setback, Wood was confident in her idea. At the age of 57, she decided to make a dramatic life change and left AllianceBernstein to start her own company. In 2014, Kathy took $5 million of her own capital and spun off ARK Invest. Gradually the company gained momentum and in 3 years reached break-even.
And many of the woman’s friends and colleagues considered her activities unwarranted, as funds with active management were considered a failure. However, Wood was able to prove to everyone that she was right without doubting her own rightness.
In addition to ARK Invest herself, Cathie is known for her accurate predictions. In 2018, Elon Musk was planning to take Tesla stock off the market. Wood sent him a letter explaining why Tesla should not be a private company. According to Cathie, by 2023, the electric car maker’s stock price would exceed $4,000 before the stock split and $800 after. As a result, Elon Musk abandoned his intention to leave the stock exchange, and Wood’s prediction came true as early as 2021.
In addition, Cathie Wood notes the potential of cryptocurrency, and her company is working with cryptocurrency funds.
