Cathie Wood’s star rose during the pandemic on timely bets on companies like Tesla, Zoom and Roku, but those same bets are now dragging down her Ark funds and investors have pulled out billions of dollars in protest this year.
Backers have withdrawn $2.2 billion from six actively managed ETFs owned by Wood’s company, Ark Investment Management, since January, a big jump from the $760 million that investors took out last year Wall Street Journal reported. Overall, assets invested in the six ETFs have fallen 30% year-to-date to $11.1 billion, down 81% from their 2021 peak.
Wood’s popularity is one of the main attractions for investors to put money into Ark. Through numerous television appearances and sustained social media activity, she became a celebrity both on and off Wall Street. Still, Morningstar analyst Robby Greengold wrote in an April note that Ark’s focus on wood was part of the problem.
“Wood’s reliance on her instincts to construct the portfolio is a liability,” Greengold wrote.
Some of Wood’s biggest stock picks have slumped this year, even as technology stocks led the market gains and the S&P 500 rose 6.3%. Tesla, which accounts for about 9.45% of Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF and is its second-largest holding, fell more than 50% on Tuesday after the company reported weak first-quarter results. Even after a rebound Wednesday morning, shares of the company are still down about 35% year-to-date. Some of Ark’s other holdings, such as Zoom and Roku, lost 11.5% and 31%, respectively, over the same period.
Wood has defended her decision to sell the Ark Innovation ETF’s shares in chipmaker Nvidia, just ahead of a rally that has seen the company’s shares rise 200% in a year. She said in May that Nvidia was facing increasing competition from other technology companies such as Tesla, Meta and Apple, adding that it was time for a realignment.
“We’re just moving on to a different set of pieces that most people haven’t discovered yet,” Wood said at the time. “Just like they didn’t understand until recently that Nvidia is really an AI game.”
A bright spot for Wood was Coinbase, the Ark Innovation ETF’s largest holding. Shares of the crypto exchange are up about 47% since January but are still far from their 2021 highs.
Overall, Morningstar estimates that Ark Invest has destroyed more than $14 billion in investor assets in the decade since launching its first funds, more than any other asset manager in the same period.
Ark Invest did not immediately respond Assets‘s request for comment, but a spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that the 109% return of its flagship fund since 2014 is evidence of its strong value creation.
The company’s flagship fund is down about 12% year-to-date. It closed up less than 1% at $43.90 on Wednesday afternoon.
This story was originally published on Fortune.com