One strategy has helped a company stand out in the $6.4 trillion US exchange-traded fund market — piggybacking off of Cathie Wood.
That's the tactic helping to bolster up AXS Investments, the ETF issuer behind funds that bet both for and against Wood's $9.4 billion ARK Innovation ETF (ticker ARKK).
Since its launch in May, trading volume has steadily increased in the AXS 2X Innovation ETF (TARK), which doubles the performance of Wood's flagship fund. Meanwhile, its Tuttle Capital Short Innovation ETF (SARK), which bets against ARKK, has ballooned in size to $395 million in nine months.
"It's really the first time I've seen a firm be able to ride the wave of another ETF issuer," Athanasios Psarofagis, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said. "In a way they help each other: AXS needs ARK, but ARK now benefits from more attention, and more trading building around their products."
The Federal Reserve's rapid interest-rate hikes have dented highly-valued technology companies that make up most of ARKK's holdings. As a result, ARKK has fallen over 50% year to date.
But its decline hasn't stopped investors from pouring $1.8 billion into the fund in 2022 — underscoring the cult following Wood has maintained ever since her nearly 150% run in 2020.
Wood's popularity has sparked a global ecosystem of funds attempting to mimic ARK, with Bloomberg Intelligence tracking 24 exchange-traded products globally that are tied to the performance of an ARK strategy.
Out of all of the ARK-focused funds, SARK, which tracks the inverse performance of ARKK using swaps contracts to achieve the opposite return of Wood's fund for a single day, has gained the most.
The fund's price jumped about 53% this year. AXS, which also recently launched the first U.S. single-stock ETFs, announced the purchase of the fund from Tuttle Capital Management in April.
