Recently, Bridgewater Associates, the world's top hedge fund, and its head, Ray Dalio, were suddenly questioned, sparking market attention.
After the publication of "The Fund" by New York Times reporter Rob Copeland, he directly pointed to the investment strategy of Bridgewater Fund, which was not based on rules such as automation systems and artificial intelligence as he advocated, but was solely decided by founder Ray Dalio. It claims that the investment system claimed by Qiaoshui to the public is just a carefully constructed scam.
Bridgewater Fund quickly responded to this and said, "It must be solemnly stated that the overall plot of the book is absurd and far from the truth. The book attempts to smear us with exaggerated descriptions, creating a distorted and distorted image through a series of pieced together stories. This is a false and misleading portrayal of our company, corporate culture, and corporate group
How about the specific situation? Let's take a look together——
Bridgewater Fund questioned
The company issues a solemn statement
Recently, Rob Copeland, a financial journalist who works for the New York Times in the United States, released the book "The Fund: Rui Dalio, Bridgewater Fund, Revealing the Legend of Wall Street", which has attracted attention. This book claims that it "punctures the carefully crafted narrative of this charitable business giant" and exposes the truth behind Dalio's "principles": "They encourage a toxic culture of paranoia and backstabbing
Copeland said he interviewed people inside and around Qiaoshui, including current and former employees. He questioned the investment strategy of Bridgewater Fund in the article, stating that it is not based on rules such as automation systems and artificial intelligence as it advocates, and there is no so-called "holy grail" for investment. Instead, it is entirely based on the intuition of the company's founder, Ray Dalio, and the network of relationships he has established with high-level executives from various countries around the world.
According to Copeland's description, Dalio is a self centered, authoritarian, and paranoid leader, with "only Dalio personally giving orders" in Bridgewater. It has the so-called 'circle of trust'. During the peak period of Qiaoshui, there were nearly 2000 employees, but less than 20% of them were engaged in investment or related research fields. The responsibilities of these investment personnel are usually to research economic history projects and write papers, which are ultimately reviewed and edited by Dalio. No more than 10 people have truly entered Dalio's "circle of trust".
Regarding Copeland's statement, on November 7th, Dalio responded on his social media account that it was a sensational and inaccurate tabloid book aimed at promoting it to gossip enthusiasts. The author applied for a job with the Bridgewater Foundation, but was rejected. Then, he became an investigative journalist for a famous newspaper and made his career writing distorted stories about me and Bridgewater
On November 8th, Bridgewater China forwarded on its official website the statement released by Bridgewater from the United States regarding recent books related to Ray Dalio and Bridgewater.
Although we do not want this book to receive additional attention, we must solemnly declare that the overall plot of the book is absurd and far from the truth. The book attempts to smear us with exaggerated descriptions, creating a distorted and distorted image through a series of pieced together stories. This is a false and misleading portrayal of our company, corporate culture, and corporate group Qiaoshui Fund stated in a response statement.
According to its introduction, since its establishment in 1975, Qiaoshui's unique company philosophy has always been guided, which was reflected in the first "Company Philosophy Declaration" released in 1997. In 2022, as it completed its transition from Rui Dalio to the current leadership team, Qiaoshui updated its "Company Philosophy Manifesto" to better reflect its up-to-date values, namely Qiaoshui's "creative excellence" philosophy.
According to Qiaoshui Fund, As a collective, we have been constantly making progress, which is a necessary condition for success. We never shy away from legitimate and genuine criticism: when we make mistakes, we have the courage to acknowledge each other, supervise each other, and constantly improve. This is a core component of our corporate culture and a quality required by our team, customers, and shareholders. One of our missions, which is to deeply understand the market and economy, also requires such a culture As support
In addition, Qiaoshui Fund also stated that the true Qiaoshui story is reflected in its industry-leading investment performance and customer service over the past 50 years, as well as in the cultural commitment of over 1200 employees. Here, regardless of the position, the best ideas always win. All we do is to better serve our outstanding clients, nearly 70% of whom have been working with Qiaoshui for ten years or more
Finally, the Bridgewater Fund also reiterated that, Although we are disappointed with the inaccurate and misleading description of Bridgewater in this book, we are filled with immense enthusiasm for the future. As we look forward to Bridgewater's next 50 years, we will build on past experience and success, striving to achieve results that surpass the past. Nowadays, Bridgewater is managed by our operations board and a dynamic and diverse leadership team. We always focus on innovation and providing high-quality services to customers And will continue to uphold our common values
Qiaoshui advocates creative and selective culture
The scale has shrunk in the past year
According to public information, Bridgewater Fund was founded by Rui Dalio in 1975 and is a global macro asset management company. Qiaoshui's clients include central banks, sovereign funds, university endowments, family offices, etc. Qiaoshui currently trades in hundreds of developed and emerging markets worldwide. In addition, the "Daily Observations" report that Qiaoshui has been publishing since its establishment has been highly praised by the investment community to this day.
On March 7, 2016, Qiaoshui (China) Investment Management Co., Ltd. was established and subsequently registered with the China Securities Investment Fund Industry Association on June 29, 2018, becoming a foreign private equity company officially entering the Chinese market. At the end of 2021, the private equity fund management scale of Qiaoshui China exceeded ten billion.
The most famous strategy of Qiaoshui is the all-weather strategy, which is a very famous "invention" of Qiaoshui. In 1996, Qiaoshui launched the "All Weather" hedge fund and pioneered the use of risk parity to manage investment portfolios. After entering the Chinese market, Qiaoshui also introduced this strategy into the domestic market. The products issued by Qiaoshui China adopt a 24/7 enhanced strategy, investing in Chinese stocks, bonds, commodities and their derivatives; The goal is to achieve sustained and stable returns through high diversification, with the expectation of achieving long-term returns similar to stocks, but with a significant reduction in risk.
Qiaoshui Fund highly values its culture. On the official website of Qiaoshui China, it is also mentioned that Qiaoshui is committed to creating an extremely authentic and transparent company culture to ensure that high-quality ideas ultimately emerge, enabling timely detection and effective handling of problems, and continuously optimizing personnel and process settings. This culture enables us to achieve success in the investment industry and maintain a competitive advantage
In fact, in recent years, Rui Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater, has published the book "Principles", promoting the company's culture and the principles behind it. The core of the so-called "culture of creative excellence" is to achieve the best results through open dialogue, rational disagreement, and effective decision-making mechanisms. He said that Qiaoshui encourages all employees, regardless of their qualifications, positions, and age, to speak up boldly at any time. In this atmosphere, positive and rigorous ideas collide to generate high-quality ideas, and effective mechanisms differentiate the value of viewpoints, ultimately resulting in higher quality decisions than any individual thinking alone.
It is worth noting that in October last year, Qiaoshui Fund completed the "handover plan". After 47 years in charge of Bridgewater Fund, Dalio relinquished control of the company and resigned from one of the company's three co chief investment officers, transferring all voting rights to the company's operating board. But he will continue to serve the company as a mentor to the Chief Investment Officer and a member of the Operations Board.
Let's take a look at the scale changes and performance of Qiaoshui Fund in recent years.
In the "2022 Global Top 10 Hedge Funds List" published on the website of the investment magazine "Pension&Investments" last year, Bridgewater Fund held the championship with an asset size of $126.4 billion, an increase of 19.6% compared to the previous year. In fact, in 2022, the net value of Pure Alpha under Qiaoshui experienced significant fluctuations, with a cumulative increase of over 20% in the first three quarters. However, in the last quarter, there was a significant pullback and a sharp decline in revenue.
However, in the 2023 Top 10 Hedge Funds list released by Pension and Investment this year, Bridgewater Fund remains the world's number one fund, with its 14th year at the top. However, as of June 30 of this year, its asset size has decreased to $97.2 billion, shrinking by over 23% within a year.
