New York Magazine – Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of hedge-fund behemoth Bridgewater Associates, had a great 2013 in terms of making YouTube videos and pissing off boaters in Connecticut. But investing? Not so hot.
Bridgewater, which is known on Wall Street for its culture of brutal honesty and Dalio’s intense workplace manifesto, lost about 4 percent for the year in its so-called “All-Weather” fund, and gained only 5.25 percent in its Pure Alpha fund. That’s pretty bad for a hedge fund with 1,500-odd employees and a deep roster of trading whizzes, in a year when just putting your money in an S&P 500 index fund and going to the beach would have made you about 30 percent.
