Cathie Wood’s Flagship Fund Posts the Largest Outflow on Record

Short sellers posted returns of 9% from their stock bets against popular investment manager Cathie Wood’s flagship ETF in September, according to a report by FT on Thursday.

S3 Partners, a financial analytics firm, stated by October 5, short-sellers had earned $407 million mark-to-market profits since the start of the year, a return of nearly 21%.

Their $237 million profit the previous month was equal to a return of 9.2% for September alone.

Investors withdrew $905 million from the Ark Innovation ETF, triggering a decline in assets under management of 13%, from $22 billion at the close of August to $19 billion at the close of September.

The performance signals a significant departure from ARKK’s successes in 2020 when it attracted net inflows of $9.6 billion and earned investors returns of over 150%.

Net flows have bounced back to positive territory in October, and the fund has seen net inflows of nearly $5.7 billion year to date, but long-term investors had to struggle with the drop in the fund’s market price of 14% in the year to October 4.