Mith his bets against major European corporations, Ray Dalio has repeatedly caused a stir. Most recently, in June of this year, with his hedge fund Bridgewater, he bet on the fall in prices of German stock corporations such as Siemens, SAP and Adidas with extensive short sales. In August, however, almost all of these positions had been reduced to such an extent that they were no longer reportable.
With Bridgewater Associates, Dalio launched a hedge fund in 1975 that is now one of the largest in the world with assets under management of around $150 billion. After Dalio has given up some of his power and shares in the company in recent years, the 73-year-old Dalio is now handing over control entirely to his successors, the company announced. As a result, leadership will pass to co-CEOs Nir Bar Dea and Mark Bertolini, and senior investment strategists Bob Prince and Greg Jensen. Bridgewater’s statement emphasizes that the transition from a founder-run boutique to a next-generation institution has not always been easy.
In fact, Dalio embodied the Connecticut-based Bridgewater company as much as Warren Buffett embodied his investment company Berkshire Hathaway. Dalio was often viewed more critically than Buffett, mainly because of his extensive short bets on the fall in share prices, which he also liked to comment on publicly.
Son of a jazz musician
Dalio was not born with the idea that one day he would become one of the most powerful investors in the world. His father was a jazz musician with modest possessions; but with a share portfolio, as Dalio recently told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in an interview. So he bought his first share at the age of twelve. “I was fascinated by the combination of being playful and being able to win or lose money,” he said. “And whenever I had $50 left over, I’d put it in the stock market.” Today, Dalio’s net worth is estimated at $19 billion.
He has remained a fan of stocks. Investors should definitely not invest in bonds, especially in times of high inflation, as these would eventually be repaid in the future with “depreciated money”. But Dalio also thinks about life beyond the stock exchanges and has published several books, most recently this summer’s “Changing World Order”. In it he warns of the parallels between the current world situation and that between the First and Second World Wars.
