Bridgewater Associates

  • 10 Jan 2012 at 10:41 AM

Which Hedge Funds Were Most Profitable In 2011?

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The latest issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine has the answer to that burning question but first, let’s take a gander at who had the best performance, among large hedge funds.

1. Tiger Global, YTD total return: 45% (assets, in billions: 6.0)
2. Renaissance Institutional Equities, 33.1% (7.0)
3. Pure Alpha II, 23.5% (53.0)
4. Discus Managed Futures Program, 20.9% (2.5)
5. Providence MBS, 20.6% (1.3)
6. Oculus, 19.0% (7.0)
7. All Weather 12%, 17.8% (4.4)
7. Dymon Asia Macro, 17.8% (1.6)
10. Citadel, 17.7% (11.0)
11. Coatue Management, 16.9% (4.7)
12. Stratus Multi-Strategy Program, 16.6% (3.7)
13. OxAM Quant Fund, 16.4% (2.0)
14. SPM Core, 15.7% (1.0)
15. Pure Alpha I, 14.9% (11.0)
16. Autonomy Global Macro, 13.9% (2.1)
17. BlackRock Fixed Income Global Alpha, 13.8% (2.4)
18. SPM Structured Serving Holding, 13.5% (1.6)
19. GSA Capital International, 13.0% (1.0)
20. JAT Capital, 12.7% (2.5)

And for those who judge themselves by how many bags of hundos they’ve got to strip naked and roll around in: Read more »

  • 10 Nov 2011 at 12:29 PM

Bridgewater Associates Wants The Truth, No Feelings Spared (It Can Handle It)

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As you may have heard, Bridgewater Associates is a hedge fund committed to probing the depths of any situation until it finds the truth. And, when one makes it his or her business to go after the truth, one must be persistent, and not take no for an answer. For example, at other funds, recruiters would probably not care to find out why any given individual chose not to work them, especially if said person had never even gone through the interview process in the first place, whereas Bridgewater simply rejects your rejection and demands a detailed list of valid reasons why you’ve chosen not to even consider what life could be like with BDubs. Last August, we learned of a Dartmouth student who was paid $100 to “explain why she did not want to work for them” and today, a Yale senior** relates being crammed into a hotel room to do the same. Read more »

  • 08 Sep 2011 at 10:11 AM

Ray Dalio: Preacha Tellin’ The Truth And It Hurts!

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The truth, according to Bridgewater, being: 1) the world is going to hell in a handbasket and 2) 2011 will be the Year of the Hyena. Read more »

  • 03 Aug 2011 at 8:42 AM

Dartmouth Undergrad Has A Bone To Pick With Ray Dalio, ‘Faceless Hedge Funds,’ The Dartmouth Board, And Peers Who Flock To Wall Street To ‘Perpetuate Class-Based Systems Of Power And Dominance’

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At a party in New Hampshire last week, one Dartmouth undergrad relayed a story to another about Bridgewater Associates. Apparently the former had chosen to abstain from the annual recruiting session that takes place over the summer for rising juniors and as a firm committed to probing the depths of any situation until they find the truth, Bridgewater wanted to know more. The hedge fund offered to pay the coed “$100 to write a statement explaining why she didn’t participate,” she told her friend, a proposition that sickened him.

The sheer arrogance and senselessness of this anecdote made me sick to my stomach, partly because, as planned, the exercise made her second guess her choice. But I had to admit there was a certain conceited logic to it — if this company can pay her $100 just to explain why she did not want to work for them, it’s easy to imagine how much cash she could rake in if she decided to pursue the job.

The exercise also got him thinking.

After I was done vomiting in my mouth, thinking of all the people who desperately need that hundred dollars, I began to think about the depth to which the recruiting culture has permeated our College. It has siphoned off some of our great minds into a dead-end field that sanitizes the intellect, offers almost nothing to human society, and conditions people to act in ways that are decidedly inhuman.

He continued. Read more »

Don’t Try And Tell Ray Dalio There’s Anything Risky About Hunting An Animal Known To Impale People With Its Giant Horns

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All that tells him is you know nothing about risk management. Read more »

Bridgwater Associates Truth Probings Are About To Get Turbo-Charged

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In 1974, Bridgewater hedge fund manager Ray Dalio was working in the commodities futures department of Shearson Hayden Stone when he went out with his boss on New Year’s Eve, and after getting into a debate with the guy, punched him in the stomach. Soon after that night, Dalio was fired when management learned that “at the annual convention of the California Food & Grain Growers’ Association, he paid an exotic dancer to drop her cloak in front of the crowd.” Looking back, it’s clear that in both situations, Dalio was merely acting on his lifelong belief that one should relentlessly “pursue the truth at all costs,” the guiding tenet Principle found within Bridewater Associate’s employee handbook, written by Ray.

Unfortunately, in 1974, Principles was but a single-celled idea in Dalio’s mind, and the higher-ups at SHS didn’t understand that Ray didn’t pay off the dancer so he could see her tits but so conference goers could drill down to the truth underneath her robe, while punching the boss was RD’s way of trying to get the guy to open his eyes. Read more »

  • 21 Jun 2011 at 10:25 AM

Bridgewater’s Flagship Fund Up 11 Percent YTD

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The radical truth-seeking sessions are paying off. Read more »

  • 12 Apr 2011 at 4:28 PM

Bridgewater Employees Speak Out: What Bridgewater Has Done For Me

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Last May, we were introduced to Principles, the company handbook written by Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, which instructs employees to go on radical truth seeking missions in order to better themselves and in turn the firm (the firm also expects the staff to “probe” each other regularly, no matter one’s rank, in order to foster openness and meritocracy). Not everyone who read the Principles was impressed, suggesting (by saying outright) that the ideology found inside the Westport-based hedge fund is psychologically abusive and similar to that of a cult. The sentiment was shared by both outsiders and former employees whose reactions can be explained thusly: they’re simply not ready to embrace the truth.

These people suggested that anyone who set foot inside the building, for even so much an interview (wherein applicants are asked their views on abortion and told to point out the flaws in other potential hires) would sooner or later run from the place, like an inmate breaking out of the asylum, and that the only reason people stay is because they’re forced to against their will. If these naysayers were ready to probe to the depths of the truth, they’d find out that the firm’s staff loves the Principles and the way the place is run. And that Bridgewater? Has changed their lives for the better. The reason we know this is because a bunch of employees were recently recorded saying as much. Read more »

  • 11 Apr 2011 at 12:32 PM

Programming Note: Ray Dalio Has Updated The Name Of Bridgewater’s Handbook

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“Principles” is now titled “Principles (That Might Be Right or Wrong, for You to Take or Leave).” [NYM, earlier]

  • 17 Mar 2011 at 11:43 AM

Pension Funds Love Bridgewater

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Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates clocked in as the hedge fund of choice among public pension plans, in a recent popularity contest, with 21 out of 150 PPP’s investing with the firm. If they can’t get a piece of Ray, the funds people will settle for are: Read more »

  • 08 Mar 2011 at 11:32 AM

Bridgewater, Under Water

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The parking lot of Bridgewater Associates yesterday, following some melting of snow and a li’l rain. [WN] Read more »