The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
by Rob Copeland
Unlike employees from virtually every other hedge fund, few who left Bridgewater would ever start a fund of their own, and not just because of the firm’s aggressive legal posture. Given the tight reins on access to the meat of the department, sadly, working on the Bridgewater investment team left precious few people with tangible knowledge on the hedge fund’s investing. Stefanova found Dalio’s dismissiveness toward societal rules particularly alluring. He would tell a fable about a ravenous pack of hyenas murdering a young wildebeest. The wildebeest may suffer, but its death is necessary to promote evolutionary improvement. Dalio saw himself as a hyena. “What is best is acting in your self-interest,” he told her.
Unlike employees from virtually every other hedge fund, few who left Bridgewater would ever start a fund of their own, and not just because of the firm’s aggressive legal posture. Given the tight reins on access to the meat of the department, sadly, working on the Bridgewater investment team left precious few people with tangible knowledge on the hedge fund’s investing.
Stefanova found Dalio’s dismissiveness toward societal rules particularly alluring. He would tell a fable about a ravenous pack of hyenas murdering a young wildebeest. The wildebeest may suffer, but its death is necessary to promote evolutionary improvement. Dalio saw himself as a hyena. “What is best is acting in your self-interest,” he told her.
Dalio gave Jensen a copy of one of Dalio’s favorite books, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by the late American professor Joseph Campbell. Dalio told Jensen that they were both on journeys similar to those of the heroes studied by Campbell—ones filled with trials, battles, temptations, success, and failure.
“The magic is, you only need to do this simple thing. The simple thing is to find fifteen or twenty good, uncorrelated return streams, things that are probably going to make money—you don’t know, but they have a good probability of making money—that are uncorrelated.”
“You’ve got three hundred and seventy-five Principles. Those aren’t principles. Toyota has fourteen principles. Amazon has fourteen principles. The Bible has ten. Three hundred and seventy-five can’t possibly be principles. They are an instruction manual.”
"Unlike employees from virtually every other hedge fund, few who left Bridgewater would ever start a fund of their own, and not just because of the firm’s aggressive legal posture. Given the tight reins on access to the meat of the department, sadly, working on the Bridgewater investment team left precious few people with tangible knowledge on the hedge fund’s investing."
"Stefanova found Dalio’s dismissiveness toward societal rules particularly alluring. He would tell a fable about a ravenous pack of hyenas murdering a young wildebeest. The wildebeest may suffer, but its death is necessary to promote evolutionary improvement. Dalio saw himself as a hyena. “What is best is acting in your self-interest,” he told her."
"Dalio gave Jensen a copy of one of Dalio’s favorite books, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by the late American professor Joseph Campbell. Dalio told Jensen that they were both on journeys similar to those of the heroes studied by Campbell—ones filled with trials, battles, temptations, success, and failure."
"“The magic is, you only need to do this simple thing. The simple thing is to find fifteen or twenty good, uncorrelated return streams, things that are probably going to make money—you don’t know, but they have a good probability of making money—that are uncorrelated.”"
"“You’ve got three hundred and seventy-five Principles. Those aren’t principles. Toyota has fourteen principles. Amazon has fourteen principles. The Bible has ten. Three hundred and seventy-five can’t possibly be principles. They are an instruction manual.”"
"Once wealthy, however, people were less consumed by the hunt for the next score. They were more focused on staying rich than getting richer, and their strategy focused on steady, long-term growth and the minimization of the risk of big losses."
"THE DEPRESSION that never happened cost Dalio dearly. He lost clients and his own money. He laid off his small staff, reducing the firm to just one employee, himself. To recover, he would need to develop more than a Cassandra act."
- →“The magic is, you only need to do this simple thing. The simple thing is to find fifteen or twenty good, uncorrelated return streams, things that are probably going to make money—you don’t know, but they have a good probability of making money—that are uncorrelated.”
- →THE DEPRESSION that never happened cost Dalio dearly. He lost clients and his own money. He laid off his small staff, reducing the firm to just one employee, himself. To recover, he would need to develop more than a Cassandra act.
- →For Dalio, a mistake was never just a mistake. It was an opportunity to dive into the individualistic human psychology that led to errors—particularly ones that Dalio himself might have avoided.
- →“Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives,” he would often tell Prince. “If you chase them all, you never have enough critical mass to really wrestle any one of them to the ground.”
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