'Study The Mindset Of Stonk Hodlers': This Fund Manager Rips Cathie Wood's Investment Strategy

ETF fund manager Cathie Wood is known for investing in growth stocks and what she has labeled as “innovation.” A take by the fund manager drew criticism from a hedge fund manager.

What Happened: Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood is known for putting high forward-looking price targets on names she believed will see growth from innovation in the future. This included names such as Tesla Inc TSLA, Roku Inc ROKU and even Bitcoin BTC/USD, with Wood having some of the highest price targets for the future.

“The world today appears to be run by the ‘profitless tech’ companies of the past. Ark invested in companies that we believe will change the world & generate extraordinary cashflow at scale, not mature companies catering to short-term investors,” Wood tweeted.

Wood shared an article from early December with a tweet that highlighted how “market pundits” have targeted Ark Invest.

“They describe stocks in ARK’s strategies as ‘concept capital’ and suggest that our investment team either cannot distinguish profitable companies from unprofitable ones or seeks to invest in unprofitable companies. In our view, the companies in which we invest are sacrificing short-term profits to capitalize on the exponential growth and highly profitable opportunities that a number of innovation platforms are creating,” the article stated.

The article continued by saying companies that appeal to short-term investors pay dividends and “manufacture earnings with share repurchases.”

“We believe many are likely to be disrupted, if not destroyed.”

Third Point CEO and hedge fund manager Dan Loeb took objection to Wood’s tweet and potentially the article in reference.

“Anyone teaching a value investing class or one on investment psychology should use this memo as a treatise to study the mindset of stonk hodlers,” Loeb tweeted. “Note the disparaging comments on Luddites who look at archaic measures of value like cash flow as short-term traders.”

Related Link: Cathie Wood Splurges On Tesla For 6th Straight Day As Weekly Purchase Crosses $23 Million 

Why It’s Important: In 2021, growth stocks were incredibly popular. Many of the top names in the Ark Invest ETF portfolios were hitting all-time highs and trading at record prices to earnings multiples and forward-looking outlooks.

In 2022, in the face of a potential recession, investors have seen the prices of growth stocks fall significantly. Some investors have flocked to value stocks.

The battle for value stocks versus growth stocks has been one of the biggest themes in 2022 and one of the biggest reasons why the ETFs from Ark Invest have been hit significantly in 2022.

Here is a look at the performance of the Ark Invest ETFs:

Ark Innovation ETF ARKK: -68% year-to-date

Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW: -69%

Ark Fintech Innovation ETF ARKF: -66%

Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ: -49%

Ark Space Exploration & Innovation ETF ARKX: -36%

Ark Genomic Revolution ETF ARKG: -54%

Once known as some of the most popular and highest-performing ETFs, the funds now sit at five-year lows in some cases. Investors continue to pull money out of the Ark Invest ETFs and some of the names in the holdings list have become popular short candidates from investors.

Loeb was mostly poking fun at Wood changing valuation metrics and criticizing items such as free cash flow, EBITDA, share buybacks and dividends. The investor and hedge fund manager could also use her fund performance to show how long-term investing using growth metrics might be off.

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Photo: Atstock Productions via Shutterstock