• In 1975 he founded Bridgewater Associates
• Hedge fund manager’s fortune estimated at $22 billion in 2022
First share purchase at the age of twelve
American financial entrepreneur Ray Dalio had an interest in financial markets from a young age: when he was 12 years old working as a caddy on a golf course, he saved his money and bought the only stock whose company name he knew and which was under five US -dollar was traded. According to Dalio, the fact that this early investment was already successful was not due to his precise prediction or fundamental analysis, but was simply luck: Northeast Airlines, which had got into financial difficulties, was taken over a little later, causing the share price to recover. After leaving school, he attended Harvard University, among others, from which he graduated in 1973 with a Master of Business Administration.
Great achievements as a hedge fund manager
In 1975 he founded the investment firm Bridgewater Associates from his New York City home. The company initially offered consulting services, later the focus shifted further to asset management. In this way, Bridgewater was able to acquire a number of institutional investors as customers: the World Bank made the start, entrusting Bridgewater with a sum of five million US dollars in 1985. Bridgewater later developed into the largest hedge fund in the world and successfully withstood challenging times on the financial markets such as the economic crisis of 2008/2009 or the corona pandemic of 2020, the effects of which Dalio was able to assess early on. Today, the company oversees assets worth approximately $150 billion.
principles and predictions
Dalio follows a strict catalog of self-developed so-called “principles”: Dalio sees reality as the direct result of cause-effect relationships, good cooperation with other people is an essential prerequisite for success for him and he sees life as a journey, on discovering one’s personal nature. Dalio attributes a significant part of his economic success to these principles. In his now numerous books, he not only goes into these principles in depth, but also spreads his visions for the future: In a book published in 2021, Dalio explained, for example, that there is a 30 percent probability that the United States will experience a civil war in the next few years. The reasons for this are inflation and reduced international influence of the United States.
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