Business

Ark Invest’s flagship fund realized $3.5 billion in losses in a year. Here were its 10 biggest losers.

October 17, 2024

Photo by Marco Bello/Getty Images

Ark Invest’s Innovation ETF realized $3.5 billion in losses in the fiscal year ending July 2024.
Ark Invest saw an accumulated loss of $22 billion across its suite of ETFs.
Cathie Wood said in an X post this summer that trading losses are useful for offsetting future taxes.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest recently filed its annual report for its fiscal year ending July 31, and it reveals some steep losses.

Ark’s flagship Innovation ETF realized $3.5 billion in losses from July 31, 2023, through July 31, 2024.

Across Ark’s suite of eight innovation and disruption-focused ETFs, the total accumulated loss was $21.7 billion, according to the annual report.

The past few years have been tough for the kinds of speculative growth stocks Ark funds have focused on. The losses for its funds followed the deflation of the speculative trade in 2021, as investors fled the kinds of money-losing companies in which Ark Invest is heavily invested amid high inflation and rising interest rates.

The Financial Times flagged a now-deleted thread on X in July, in which Ark CEO Cathie Wood defended her fund’s losses by arguing that they’re an “under-appreciated asset associated with our strategies.”

“As a result, our trading-related capital tax losses should offset trading-related capital tax gains for years, an under-appreciated asset associated with our strategies,” Wood said in the post.

The Ark Innovation ETF is down 9% year-to-date and off 70% from its record high.

Ark Invest did not respond to a request for comment.

Here are the stocks in Ark Invest’s flagship ETF that saw the biggest realized losses for the fiscal year ending July 31.

10. Veracyte