Betting on human tendencies for the long run, ARKQ
In trading and investing the crowd is not your friend, this mantra or some derivative of it gets repeated and parroted by the talking heads and investment gurus like a broken record, the irony is that they are the proverbial crowd they so fervently encourage retail investors to avoid. They are correct though, the herd does always loose and so it is no surprise that once Cathy Wood's, ARK brand of funds rose to popularity their stellar performance ground to a halt. This does not mean they are not worth investing in or that the philosophy behind the funds are doomed to failure. Now I am not some massive Cathy Wood fan and indeed I only invest in one of her funds but it is hilarious to watch the talking heads and self-reported experts jump ship and start an almost daily string of criticism after her funds suffer a single year of poor performance. Was it ever reasonable to assume she could continue the performance of recent years, from its inception near the end of 2014 her flagship fund ARKK rose to its peak in Feb 2021 almost 700%, while the S&P 500 rose 95%. In a world where the majority of active fund managers significantly underperform the market did anyone think this was sustainable? Even after a horrid year ARKK is still up 320% while over the same time period since 2014 the S&P 500 has risen 132%. Who can honestly say over a 7 year period they have outperformed the market by nearly 3X not many people I would wager. To conclude I find it incredibly reassuring to see the daily criticism of Cathy Wood as usual the experts will mislead the crowd and just like they were no where to be seen before Woods funds rose to prominence they will fade away and change their tune once they start to perform well again.
So with the above information in mind I would like to remind people why I continue to add to my holdings in ARKQ. ARKQ is one of Cathy Woods fund that invests in robotics and artificial intelligence. I find this fund very appealing over a 20-30 year time frame for one major reason and that reason is human nature. For all of human history people have tried to build machines to accomplish tasks better, faster, or with less effort. This constant innovation has resulted in almost all repetitive and predictable tasks now being automated and performed by robots. The limiting factor until recently has been the inability for machines to complete tasks that could not be easily broken down into repetitive predictable patterns. With advent of AI this will all change and I predict over the next 20-30 years machines powered by AI and equipped with advanced sensors will start to take over an unimaginable amount of regular human activities. The easiest way for a retail investor to benefit from the growth in these industries to allocate their capital to a diversified ETF that invests in these industries. Cathy Wood is a divisive figure but her record cannot be denied, ARKQ is up 272% since inception vs the S&P 500's 138% over the same time period. While 7 years of results during a strong bull market are not conclusive I believe the future will show that this is a good place to allocate capital.
So with the above information in mind I would like to remind people why I continue to add to my holdings in ARKQ. ARKQ is one of Cathy Woods fund that invests in robotics and artificial intelligence. I find this fund very appealing over a 20-30 year time frame for one major reason and that reason is human nature. For all of human history people have tried to build machines to accomplish tasks better, faster, or with less effort. This constant innovation has resulted in almost all repetitive and predictable tasks now being automated and performed by robots. The limiting factor until recently has been the inability for machines to complete tasks that could not be easily broken down into repetitive predictable patterns. With advent of AI this will all change and I predict over the next 20-30 years machines powered by AI and equipped with advanced sensors will start to take over an unimaginable amount of regular human activities. The easiest way for a retail investor to benefit from the growth in these industries to allocate their capital to a diversified ETF that invests in these industries. Cathy Wood is a divisive figure but her record cannot be denied, ARKQ is up 272% since inception vs the S&P 500's 138% over the same time period. While 7 years of results during a strong bull market are not conclusive I believe the future will show that this is a good place to allocate capital.