Page 30 - Investment Advisor April 2021

Cover Story

Early in her career when Wood worked at Jennison (naturally) her investing moxie. For example, while at
Associates, she was given the opportunity to be an analyst. AllianceBernstein in 2002, she invested in Amazon when it
She had to find her own stocks, or what she now calls “fall- had a $5 billion market capitalization.
through-the-crack stocks.” “Every Monday morning I had to announce my trades,” she
At that time in the 1980s, neither the technology nor pub- told Raznick. “I announced Amazon, and you could have heard a
lishing analysts on the team wanted to invest in the stock of pin drop. It was right after the tech bomb went off, and Amazon
Reuters — then a database publishing company — but she did. was down 85% from its peak. No portfolio manager wanted to
“Of course no one wanted it because they didn’t understand admit having held or recommended an internet stock.
this new thing that was happening … . It was called the internet “But we were convinced. At the time, I had three little kids
and was in its very, very early stages,” she told Benzinga CEO and had no time to shop. Did [Amazon have issues, yes] but I
Jason Raznick, during a recent video interview on the financial was delighted because I didn’t have to go to the store. And I just
website. “So I learned early on, if you have a good reason to knew online was going to become a big deal,” Wood explained.
expect something to happen that nobody else expects, the odds Today, 19 years later, Amazon has a market cap of $1.5 trillion.
are high that you will do very well if you’re right.”
Many times since then, not only has Wood been right on Building the Ark
seeing big ideas early — and buying the disruptive companies The firm Wood now leads — Ark — has five actively managed
that bring them to life — she’s impressed individual investors ETFs and two index ETFs. The flagship Ark Innovation ETF
and Wall Street professionals to the point that they aren’t sure (ARKK), with some $22 billion in assets as of early March,
how to define her. “The firm’s recent growth is unprecedented was launched on Oct. 31, 2014. The firm had about $45 billion
among the upper ranks of the asset management industry,” wrote of total assets under management on March 9, according to
Morningstar’s Ben Johnson, director of global ETF research, and ETF Database.
Bobby Blue, a manager research analyst, in a recent online report. The Innovation ETF’s yearly returns have averaged about
Ark’s track record demonstrates her style, talent and 38% a year since inception, Ark says. In 2020, though, it

In the Top 10
ARK Invest eclipsed several large asset managers in the latest league table,
but still has a ways to go to catch up to several of the industry behemoths.

AUM as of Feb. 28, Year-to-date 2021 Net Feb. 2021 Net Flows
ETF Issuer 2021 (millions) Flows (millions) (millions) Percent of AUM
Blackrock $2,099,290.74 $21,130.56 $16,066.62 0.77%
Vanguard $1,601,105.18 $57,807.91 $31,687.16 1.98%
State Street Global Advisors $874,941.45 $8,509.96 $5,019.87 0.57%
Invesco $306,257.27 $6,809.06 $5,511.52 1.80%
Charles Schwab $212,688.80 $6,297.19 $2,909.80 1.37%
First Trust $117,575.19 $4,316.79 $1,832.73 1.56%
Van Eck $53,547.32 $1,274.41 $148.59 0.28%
JPMorgan Chase $53,006.70 $6,748.31 $2,858.07 5.39%
ProShares $51,377.34 $3,281.77 $2,600.82 5.06%
Ark Investment Management $51,134.51 $16,561.35 $8,288.23 16.21%
WisdomTree $40,734.57 $497.27 $101.38 0.25%
Mirae Asset $27,510.64 $6,166.29 $2,896.17 10.53%
PIMCO $26,109.91 $375.30 -$121.20 -0.46%
Fidelity $25,149.12 $958.67 $568.05 2.26%
Goldman Sachs $22,555.72 $185.79 $20.72 0.09%
Source: ETF.com

28 INVESTMENT ADVISOR APRIL 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com