Aug 18 - Short interest in star investor Cathie Wood'sWood's flagship ARK Innovation ETF was at a record high, data from analytics firm S 3 Partners showed on Wednesday as several hedge funds disclosed that they were investing against the top performing ETF of 2020.
About 24.87 million shares - or 13.4% of the free float in the ETF - are currently short, making it the largest short in the ARK family of ETFs, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics for S 3 Partners.
The family office run by Big Short investor Michael Burry was among a slate of hedge funds showing bearish bets on the ETF, which is known for making investments based more on thematic trends than fundamentals or valuation.
Burry, who is known for betting more than $1 billion against the U.S. housing bubble during the global financial crisis, said on Monday he owned put options against 235,500 ARK shares as of June 30.
Put options give investors the right to sell shares at a certain price in the future Details on the strike price of the puts, their value and whether they were part of a broader trade were not available.
Burry and Wood responded to CathieDWood's status https: Twitter.com 1627593348387311617 in a tweet on Tuesday, saying, I do not believe that he understands the fundamentals that are creating explosive growth and investment opportunities in the innovation space.
The $25.52 billion ARK Innovation Fund has fallen almost 7% so far in 2021 as a rally fizzled out in the megacap technology-related stocks space including Tesla Inc, which helped the ETF soar 148% in 2020, outperforming all other U.S. equity funds.
The broader S&P 500 has gained more than 18% by comparison this year.
Laurion Capital Management, GoldenTree Asset Management and Cormorant Asset Management also have put options on ARK worth $65.4 million to $171 million, 13 F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this month.