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Cathie Wood and Ark Innovation Reviewed

February 6, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Cathie Wood is the chief executive and fund manager behind a series of tech-focused ETFs. The most well-known is ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). The fund describes itself as investing in “disruptive innovation” which they define as companies with new technological products or services that “potentially change the way the world works.” That’s a pretty lofty description. In the vein of our popular look at the track record of Jeremy Grantham, let’s take a look at Cathie Wood and ARK Innovation. The ARK Innovation Fund There are two major pieces to the ARK Innovation Fund. One is an actively managed ETF that invests primarily in tech companies that have new, or “gee whiz” products. Main investments are unsurprising in companies like Tesla and Zoom (totaling almost 17.5% of investments as of 02/06/23). Another 7% in Roku makes me nervous for a company that seems to be running out of road on the way to a dead end. I mean, the Amazon Firestick is better than the Roku stick, and between Apple TV+, and smart TVs, and cable companies, I’m not sure where Roku fits in the rapidly consolidating future of entertainment. — Maybe that’s the point. Is Roku ready to be …

Lower Investment Costs on ETFs

November 13, 2015 by Finance Gourmet

There are many different ways to successfully invest for the long-term. One such strategy is indexing. The idea of index investing is that over time very few, or maybe even none, of the various mutual funds out there, nor any portfolio you make yourself, beats the returns of the index anyways, especially after expenses. Therefore, you may as well just invest in the indexes themselves. Of course, there is no way to directly invest in an index. To do so, you basically have two choices, index funds, or index-based Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs. (Theoretically, with enough time and money, you could create your own portfolio to mimic an index, but this is often impractical.) When doing index investing, it is important to keep the expenses, or fees, of your investments as low as possible. After all, you aren’t paying for research or in-depth analysis, since the indexes already exist. Index Investing and Expenses Exchange Traded Funds, trade on the stock exchange, just like their name suggests. That means you buy them just like you do a stock, by putting in an order. For most investors, that purchase (and any subsequent sales) involves a commission, that’s part of your expenses. The …