Investor Warning: 2 Worst-Performing ETFs Right Now

ARK Invest ETFs accounted for four of the 10 worst-performing ETFs in November, with the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) ranking as the two worst, Morningstar data show. ARKW’s top three holdings—Tesla, AMD and Bitcoin—make up about 22% of the fund and fell roughly 1.5%, 15% and 14% respectively over the month, with nine of its top 10 positions down; ARKX also saw seven of its top 10 positions fall, including Archer (-10%), Rocket Lab (-13%) and AMD (-15%), the latter an unusual top holding for a space-and-defense strategy. Despite the near-term weakness, both funds have robust three‑year annualized returns (approximately 53% for ARKW and 29% for ARKX versus about 14% for the S&P 500), suggesting the pullback could be a tactical entry point for investors who remain confident in ARK’s high‑growth thematic bets, though near‑term volatility and stock-specific losses introduce clear downside risk.

Analysis

Morningstar data identify ARK Invest funds as four of the 10 worst-performing ETFs in November, with the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) ranking as the two worst. ARKW’s three largest positions—Tesla, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Bitcoin—constitute roughly 22% of the fund and fell about 1.5%, 15% and 14% respectively over the month, and nine of ARKW’s top 10 holdings were negative on the month.

ARKX suffered broad weakness as well: seven of its top 10 positions declined, including Archer (-10%), Rocket Lab (-13%) and AMD (-15%); the article highlights that AMD’s inclusion as a top-10 holding in a space-and-defense ETF is an idiosyncratic positioning choice. Per-ticker sentiment signals in the input reinforce stock-specific pressure (AMD -0.5, RKLB -0.4), indicating underperformance is concentrated rather than market-wide.

Despite the November slump, three-year annualized returns remain strong versus the S&P 500—about 53% for ARKW and 29% for ARKX versus ~14% for the S&P—implying the pullback may be a tactical entry for investors with high growth tolerance, but the mixed sentiment and modest market-impact score (0.32) underscore elevated near-term volatility and downside risk.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Investors with a multi-year, high-risk growth mandate may consider opportunistic dollar-cost averaging into ARKW or ARKX given three-year annualized returns of ~53% and ~29% versus ~14% for the S&P 500,
• Reduce or hedge concentrated exposure if your portfolio cannot absorb sharp single-name drops given nine of ARKW’s top 10 and seven of ARKX’s top 10 were down in November,
• Monitor top-10 holdings monthly for stabilization—pay special attention to AMD and Rocket Lab given their outsized negative moves and unusual positioning within ARKX,
• Treat ARKW and ARKX as volatile, thematic satellite positions rather than core defensive holdings and size positions accordingly