The Ark Invest ETFs: Comparing 2020 to 2021
What is Ark Investment Management?
ARK Invest is an investment management firm that was founded in 2014. The firm has about $50 billion in assets under management. ARK aims to deliver long-term profits through its thematic investment strategies, primarily focusing on ETFs covering innovative and disruptive technology companies.
2020 Returns
The ARK Genomic Revolution ETF ($ARKG) was the best performing ETF of 2020, having a gain of more than 180%. Further, the ARK Next Generation ETF ($ARKW) targets companies heavily involved with cloud computing, data, and e-commerce, and was up 150% in 2020. The ARK Innovation had the 6th best return in 2020 at a 147% return in 2020. Clearly, many investors assumed that Cathie Wood would not be able to replicate her 2020 returns in the following year, but this year could not have gone worse for the growing asset management firm.
2021 Returns
Although 2021 has been a good year for the entire index, that movement has mostly been reliant on the growth of a shortlist of tech holdings with strong reputations, such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Tesla. 2021 has not been a good year for growth stocks, which is very evident in Ark's ETF YTD returns that rely heavily on the performance of these companies. The Ark Innovation ETF is -21.11% YTD, The ARK Genomic Revolution ETF is down 32% YTD, and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF is down 21% YTD. The one ARK ETF in the green is their Autonomous Tech& Robotics ETF, which is up about 8% YTD.
$ARKK ETF Chart
Source: TradingView
The Future
We believe that going into 2022, the ARK Innovation ETF ($ARKK) is the best play with regards to getting your best bet on a solid return. The top stocks encompassing the ETF are Tesla, Roku, Teladoc, Square, Zoom, Shopify, Coinbase, and Twilio, amassing nearly 50% of its value. Many of these companies possess desirable qualities with regards to their future earnings potential and value in society and therefore are in a position for a strong 2022.