You’ll hear her bold prediction for 2030.

Cathie Wood is a self-made millionaire who founded ARK Invest eight years ago when she was 59.

When you think about what most people are doing in their late 50s, it comes closer to winding down instead running a $60 Billion investment fund.

Woods’s actual net worth is unclear because it’s closely tied to her investment performance, but some commentators estimate it to be in the region of $250 million.

Woods has had her fair share of scrutiny throughout her career, which most world-class investors do.

During the 2007–2008 financial crisis, Woods was the Chief Investment Officer of Alliance Berstein, and her performance was criticised for being worse than the S&P 500 and the overall stock market.

The S&P500 is an index of the 500 largest companies in the U.S.

Famous investor Michael Burry who made his Billions shorting the stock market in 2008, played by Christian Bale in the film “The Big Short”, shorted Woods’ company ARK Invest.

This is where you bet against the stock’s performance. Inferring you think it will go down.

Cathie Woods called out Michael Burry on social media after “The Big Short” investor placed a bet against her company.

Cathie Wood:

“To his credit, Michael Burry made a great call based on fundamentals and recognised the calamity brewing in the housing/mortgage market.

I do not believe that he understands the fundamentals that are creating explosive growth and investment opportunities in the innovation space,”

Well, Burry likely won big again.

Burry’s company bought 2,355 put contracts betting against Ark Invest. The profit Burry made isn’t clear, but you can see how much their performance has declined from Ark Invests price history. Mainly due to macroeconomic issues.

Circled in black is Burry’s short position, and circled in Blue is the current position of Ark Invest — The stock price of $36.32, which is 80% down from all-time highs.

Thematic Investment Strategies (Bitcoin)

Wood remains optimistic about her position in ARK Invest and has recently added more investment.

Woods has increased her position in Grayscale, one of the largest Bitcoin trusts, and bought 1.3 million shares in Coinbase worth $56 million.

Woods based her investing strategy on Thematic Investing.

What the heck is that?

A thematic investing approach doesn’t look at individual companies but focuses on the underlying technology that is likely to change our world.

Blockchain is the tech she’s bullish on.

Wood remains optimistic about her position in ARK Invest and has recently added more investment.

Woods has increased her position in Grayscale, one of the largest Bitcoin trusts, and bought 1.3 million shares in Coinbase worth $56 million.

Woods based her investing strategy on Thematic Investing.

What the heck is that?

A thematic investing approach doesn’t look at individual companies but focuses on the underlying technology that is likely to change our world.

Blockchain is the tech she’s bullish on.

Rather than looking specifically at sectors or chasing short-term trends, thematic investing looks for disruptors that could change the world even if the underlying technology is underdeveloped.

So as you can imagine, this investment strategy is highly volatile and based on a long-term vision.

At the time of publishing, Wood’s flagship fund, Ark Innovation, has trailed the S&P 500 for the last five years. The fund has dropped by more than 75% from last year’s peak.

Woods is known for making big claims about the future and advocates for Bitcoin.

Appearing on the ‘What Bitcoin Did’ podcast, Woods claimed she purchased $100,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2015 when the price was trading at $250.

And to this day, she hasn’t sold any, which means she currently has $6.6 Million in unrealised profits.

Woods says that while she could make that personal bet on Bitcoin, she couldn’t do the same in the ARK funds themselves as they are only allowed to invest in securities but could do so through Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Wood has recently backed up her previous prediction on Bitcoin’s price.

Cathie Wood

“I’m still holding to my Bitcoin prediction of $1 million by 2030, and sometimes you need to battle test.

You must go through a crisis to see the survivors and battle-test the infrastructure and the thesis.

And Bitcoin is coming out of this smelling like a rose.

The one thing that will be delayed is institutions stepping back and saying do we understand this?

Once they do the homework and see what we’ve done here, I think they may be more comfortable — coming into Bitcoin and perhaps Ethereum as a first step.”

Woods believes institutions are taking the recent price decline in Bitcoin as an opportunity to move into a new asset class.

She says the institutions might not like bitcoin, but it’s acting like a new asset class, and this gets the attention of investment managers, which they’ll look at with the view of diversifying their portfolios.

Woods goes on to say that she’s not making crazy assumptions.

And says the combination of Bitcoin’s building blocks and increased inflation makes Bitcoin a better option for retail investors than saving money.

Cathie Wood:

“Retail investors don’t have the transparency or access of investing in a fund the same way they can if they choose to invest in Bitcoin, which is decentralised and transparent.

The digital asset hasn’t skipped a beat, is more secure and will elevate retail investors.”

Final Thoughts

Cathie Woods has had a career spanning over 50 years, mainly focused on emerging technologies.

She knows her sh*t.

The short-sightedness of news outlets and people in general when the price is in a down cycle, is interesting to me.

Like Woods says, now is a great time to see who the survivors are and shake out players in the market.

Bitcoin doesn’t require a centralised party to drive its value. Instead, it’s just agreed upon by the network’s people that it has value.

It gives it some stability versus a company that can file for bankruptcy.

If Woods’s prediction of the institutions looking to take advantage of an emerging asset class is correct, we could see significant growth in the next cycle.

Regulation of Bitcoin will be an enormous factor.

This article is for informational purposes only; it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. You can consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.