How Cathie Wood Bought Bitcoin and Ruled the ETF Rankings

Something pretty striking emerges when you sort all of the 1,818 U.S.-listed, unleveraged ETFs by three-year return: Three of the top 15 are managed by the same person.

Cathie Wood, founder and chief executive officer of Ark Investment Management LLC, runs the No. 1 and the No. 2 exchange-traded funds—and for good measure, she also runs the 13th-best performer. In first place was the $653 million Ark Web x.0 ETF, which returned 39 percent annually during the three years through Sept. 20. In second was the $1.41 billion Ark Innovation ETF, which was up 35 percent a year. The 13th-place ETF was the Ark Industrial Innovation ETF, which returned 27 percent a year over the period.