A Full Breakdown of Cathie Wood's Net Worth

Learn everything you need to know about Cathie Wood with this Spiking Insiders Guide.

With an average daily volume of almost a billion shares traded, the NYSE is one of the biggest games in town. If you're an investor, you want to get in on the action and make some money. If you're new to investing, you're wondering how.

In the world of buying and selling stocks, bonds, and ETFs (exchange-traded funds), Cathie Wood is a big name. When talking about Cathie Wood, net worth almost always comes up in the conversation.

Who is Cathie Wood, and how did she make her fortune? Keep reading for everything you need to know about Cathie Wood and ARK investment.

Cathie Wood's Net Worth

One of the first questions on the tip of everyone's tongues when it comes to Cathie Wood is her net worth. When it comes to female fund managers, Cathie Wood is one of the wealthiest.

She was most likely a millionaire before she started ARK Invest because of her work as a portfolio manager and economist. She's since earned a place on Forbes "50 Over 50" and "America's Self-Made Women" lists, and her estimated net worth is about $250 million!

Cathie Wood's Early Years

Who is Cathie Wood? Cathie Wood was born in Los Angeles in 1955.

She graduated in 1981 from the University of Southern California. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance, and she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

She married the NFL player Robert Wood, though they later divorced, and he died in 2018. She has three children from the marriage.

Beginning in 1977, before her graduation, she worked for Capital Group as an assistant economist. From 1980 until 1988, she was managing director at Jennison Associates.

Later, she was a limited partner of Tupelo Capital Services until she left in 2001 to be Chief Investment Officer of AllianceBernstein. At AllianceBernstein, she was manager of over $5 billion in assets.

She left AllianceBernstein in 2013 and founded ARK Investment Management, LLC (ARK Invest) in 2014 at the age of 57.

Although she wasn't the average young startup founder, she fit right in with the 55 to 64-year-old group of women starting businesses. That's the only age group where women surpass men in starting new businesses.

When Cathie Wood started ARK Invest, she put $5 million of her own money into the venture. She left AllianceBernstein because her idea to actively manage ETF investments wasn't well received.

ARK Invest

Cathie Wood and ARK Investment focus on disruptive technologies. This includes cutting-edge technology markets such as AI, robotics, crypto, DNA sequencing, and space exploration.

ARK sold substantial portions of Tesla in April of 2021 to buy Coinbase shares when the company went public.

ARK concentrates on identifying technologies that have an enormous impact on the future. In the past, that meant technologies such as the telephone, electricity, and the automobile.

ARK Invest identifies five innovative platforms that are evolving today. Those platforms are:

• Energy storage
• Artificial intelligence
• Robotics
• Genome sequencing
• Blockchain technology

The world is undergoing a critical transformation in technology, according to ARK Invest. The transformation is due to the concurrent evolution of the above five technologies.

So far, Cathie Wood and ARK Invest's strategies are doing well. ARK Invest's annual return over the last five years averages greater than 40% making the net worth of Cathie Wood around $250 million. In 2020, her company saw gains of over 150%, much greater than the overall stock market itself.

The Three Criteria for Innovation

Investment strategies are important and the average investor doesn't always have a strategy. That's why it's important to go with a managed fund or get some investment coaching.

ARK Invest looks at three criteria for innovation before investing in a company.

Dramatic Cost Declines

ARK Invest uses Wright's Law to determine whether a company has crossed critical performance thresholds. Crossing these thresholds allows a company to diversify dramatically. Once this diversification happens, production accelerates into other areas.

A simple example is a lithium-ion battery. Declining costs meant battery manufacturers didn't make as much money as they had before.

Once the cost declined enough, though, diversification into cellphones and electric cars increased demand. Now the batteries are in high demand making them a good investment.

Cuts Across Sectors

A company must cut across both geographies and business sectors. Spanning sectors insulates companies from risk because more than one type of sector uses the product. Electricity is a good example because it spans all sectors and geographies.

A Platform for More Innovation

For Cathie Wood's ARK Invest, a platform must serve as a jumping point for additional innovation, like battery technology. The battery powers more innovation like the cellphone, electric cars, scooters, and more.

This is why ARK Invest focuses on the five major technological innovation platforms today.

Cathie Wood and Bitcoin

Cathie Wood is bullish on Bitcoin. She predicts Bitcoin's price to skyrocket if US corporations put 10% of their cash into bitcoin.

She doesn't, however, see corporations doing this until Bitcoin matures further with more broad-based inclusion in the markets. Tesla announced it would accept Bitcoin in February after purchasing $1.5 billion in Bitcoin.

Three months later, however, the company reneged due to environmental concerns. Tesla now plans to accept Bitcoin again when it confirms at least 50% renewable energy usage by Bitcoin miners. It remains to be seen if Bitcoin will live up to Cathie Wood's predictions.

ARK Invest Founder Cathie Wood

When talking about Cathie Wood, net worth, there's a lot to discuss. Cathie Wood is the founder and an ace stock picker for her investment management company ARK Invest.

Her estimated worth is about $250 million dollars! She's one of the wealthiest female fund managers in the world.

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Here at Spiking, we educate and coach you so you can understand the stock market and investing.  Like anything else, you don't want to invest until you understand the market and how it works. Knowledge is key. Get started today for a brighter, wealthier future!

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