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The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) of Cathie Wood has plummeted 60%. Is it time to invest?

On November 22, 2021, the Nasdaq Composite index, dominated by technology, achieved a fresh high of 16,212.23 points. On Friday, it closed at 13,548.06. In less than three months, the stock has dropped 16.4 percent. If the index drops below 12,969.78, it will be in a bear market, losing another 4.3 percent. When a company, index, or market falls 20% from its previous high, this is known as a bear market. As a result, the last three months have been terrible for tech stocks. The ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK), Cathie Wood's flagship fund, has been hit far harder by the slump.

The Ark Innovation ETF is at all-time highs.

From early 2019 through early 2021, the Ark Innovation ETF provided terrific returns. They were remarkable because they invested in "disruptive innovation," as Cathie Wood describes. This can be seen in DNA sequencing and genomics, automation and robots, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and fintech (financial technology). Many of ARKK's highly speculative equities soared during the Covid-19 outbreak as market expectations skyrocketed.

In 2019, ARKK rose 34.6 percent before bursting by 149.1 percent in Covid-affected 2020. The stock hit an all-time high of $159.70 on February 16, 2021. From its launch on October 30, 2014, to its delight in February of last year, this New York-listed ETF returned an incredible 683.6 percent (excluding dividends). $1,000 would have grown to roughly $7,836 in less than six and a half years. As a result, Cathie Wood was called "The Queen of the Bull Market." Investors compared her to multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

ARKK has made his way back to Earth.

Unfortunately, it's been all downhill for ARKK since February 2021, with the ETF plummeting considerably over the past year. At the end of 2021, it was $94.59. On the other hand, Cathie Wood has had a rough year in 2022, as the stock of her beloved ETF has continued to fall. On Friday, it hit a 2021-22 low of $63.99. The stock has lost roughly 60% of its value from its all-time high. This returns it to where it was in early June 2020, wiping out nearly two years of gains.

Would I put money into this high-risk technology stock today?

After a 31.5 percent drop in 2022? The stock is only down 2.3 percent since January 27 is a good spot. Cathie Wood predicted that in 2021-22, this day would mark the bottom of the tech catastrophe. However, something weird and frightening happened to me last week. The graph compared Nasdaq's performance from 1996 to 2001 to ARKK from 2017 to 2022. The connection between the two seemed obvious. Before clashing, both lines surged in synchrony. When market bubbles burst, they frequently deflate in the same way, in my experience.

I don't own ARKK at present, but would I consider purchasing it with such a precipitous decrease? I generally avoid speculative tech equities as a long-term value investor. On May 1, 2021, Warren Buffett observed, "There's a lot more to buying stocks than figuring out what's going to be a wonderful business in the future." I'm not convinced Cathie Wood will be able to repeat her market-beating performance from 2019 to 2021.

Furthermore, the United States is confronted with severe economic difficulties. Inflationary pressures, interest rate hikes, and higher bond yields are projected in 2022-2023. These conditions are rarely favorable to the upward re-rating of a speculative tech stock. I've never purchased ARKK before and have no intention of now. Of course, the company's investments could pay off in the future, and I could be wrong — just as I was in 2019-20!

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