(New York Post) - Ark Investment Management founder Cathie Wood is launching a Transparency exchange traded fund that will eschew investments in alcohol, banking, chemical, confectionary, fossil fuel transportation, gambling, metals, minerals, natural gas, oil and tobacco companies.
According to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ARK Transparency will consider a number of factors — like corporate reputation and how many lawsuits a company has been involved in — when deciding which companies qualify for the fund.
Companies that provide products like booze and banking are banned regardless of how much customers trust them or how transparent their pricing is.
It isn’t clear how the firm will rate such qualitative factors as consumer trust or corporate reputation.
The fund will largely invest in and consumer companies like Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Apple, Chipotle, and Tesla.
The Transparency ETF is just the latest to be added to Wood’s growing family of growth-focused funds. Wood has a number of high-profile funds including ARK Invest, ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics, and ARK Genomic Revolution.
ARKK is up nearly 30 percent year over year but has dropped around 9 percent in the last six months as Wood’s earlier bets on Chinese tech stocks were crushed.
Wood’s strategy is to buy up “disruptive technology” stocks and heavily invest in a few pricey stocks like Tesla and Teledoc health.
Still, Wood is optimistic that the fund’s success will continue. Last month she posted on Twitter, “The bull market has strengthened, setting the stage we believe for another leg up in innovation strategies.”
On Tuesday, Wood defended her massive stake in videoconference company Zoom. Wood bought up $50 million in Zoom stock this week even as the company’s shares plunged 17 percent.
