Raymond Thomas Dalio (born August 8, 1949) is an American billionaire investor and

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...

manager, who has served as co-

chief investment officer The chief investment officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of investments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio of assets, devise strategies for growth, act as ...

of the world's largest hedge fund,

Bridgewater Associates Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975. The firm serves institutional clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments, and central banks. It utilizes a glob ...

, since 1985. He founded Bridgewater in 1975 in New York. A $5 million investment from the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

's retirement fund was made within five years. His innovations are regarded as some of the best in the industry, having popularized many commonly used practices, such as

risk parity Risk parity (or risk premia parity) is an approach to investment management which focuses on allocation of risk, usually defined as volatility, rather than allocation of capital. The risk parity approach asserts that when asset allocations are ad ...

currency overlay Currency overlay is a financial trading strategy or method conducted by specialist firms who manage the currency exposures of large clients, typically institutions such as pension funds, endowments and corporate entities. Typically the institution w ...

, portable alpha and global

inflation-indexed bond Daily inflation-indexed bonds (also known as inflation-linked bonds or colloquially as linkers) are bonds where the principal is indexed to inflation or deflation on a daily basis. They are thus designed to hedge the inflation risk of a bond. Th ...

management. Dalio was born in New York City and attended

C.W. Post College LIU Post (formally, the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and often referred to as C.W. Post) is a private university in Brookville, New York. It is the largest campus of the private Long Island University system. The campus is nam ...

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

before receiving an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1973. Two years later, in his apartment, Dalio launched Bridgewater. In 2013, it was listed as the largest hedge fund in the world. In 2020 ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

'' ranked him the world's 79th-wealthiest person. Dalio is the author of the 2017 book '' Principles: Life & Work'', about

corporate management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and investment philosophy. It was featured on ''The New York Times'' best seller list, where it was called a "gospel of radical transparency."

Early life

Dalio was born in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of New York City's

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

borough. When he was 8, the family moved from Jackson Heights to

Manhasset Manhasset is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. The population was 8,176 at the 2020 United States ce ...

in Nassau County, New York. He is the son of a jazz musician, Marino Dallolio (1911–2002), who "played the clarinet and saxophone at Manhattan jazz clubs such as the Copacabana," and Ann, a homemaker. As a child, Dalio had various odd jobs, including mowing lawns, shoveling snow, and a paper route. He is of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent. At age 12, he started caddying at The Links Golf Club, which was within walking distance of his childhood home. He caddied for many Wall Street professionals during his time there, including Wall Street veteran George Leib. Leib and his wife Isabelle invited Dalio to their

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

apartment for family dinners and holiday gatherings. The couple's son, a Wall Street trader, later gave Dalio a summer job at his trading firm. He began investing at age 12, when he bought shares of

Northeast Airlines Northeast Airlines was an American airline based in Boston, Massachusetts that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, Los Angeles and other cities. It was acquired by and merged into Del ...

for $300 and tripled his investment after the airline merged with another company. By the time he reached high school, he had built up an investment portfolio of several thousand dollars. He received a bachelor's degree in finance from

(C.W. Post College) and an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

from

in 1973."Pursuing Self-Interest in Harmony With the Laws of the Universe and Contributing to Evolution is Universally Rewarded"

Kevin Roose Kevin Roose is the author of three books and a technology columnist for ''The New York Times''. He wrote a book about Liberty University, an evangelical Christian university known for strict rules imposed on students. He was named on ''Forbes'' " ...

, April 10, 2011, New York Magazine

Investment career

College

In his high school years, Dalio was an average student. He found school repetitive and monotonous and saw no practical applications for the skills he was learning. Because of this, he had trouble finding a college at which to enroll. He finally applied and got into

, a campus of

. He continued to buy and sell stocks in college, but became attracted to something new:

commodity futures In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

. Commodity futures had low borrowing requirements at the time, and Dalio knew he could profit more handsomely than with simple stocks. At the same time, he was beginning to enjoy school. With more freedom given to him, he took up

transcendental meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

, which he still practices to this day. Through the use of this stress-management technique and a renewed interest in learning, Dalio achieved academic excellence. At the end of his time at C.W. Post College, he was admitted to

Graduate school

After graduating from C.W. Post College, Dalio had a free summer. He took a job as a clerk on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. While there, he witnessed Nixon's decision to take the United States off of the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

. Due to the inflation this caused, stock prices on the exchange rose, on average, 33% the following day. These events set in motion the Great Inflation of the 1970s. The combination of easy money policy and abandonment of fiscal discipline set prices soaring. The next summer, after his first year at Harvard, Dalio and his friends created the company that later became Bridgewater Associates. It started off as a small entity, and its goal was to trade commodities. But they lacked experience and the venture yielded little fruit. Although the original Bridgewater failed, Dalio later used the name to start what would become the largest hedge fund in history. The experience of trading commodities later became much more valuable, as the high-interest rates used to break the back of inflation caused the stock market to fall. This caused investors on Wall Street to turn to commodities, which are typically more resilient and thrive during times of inflation.

Professional start

After graduating from Harvard, Dalio married and started a family. He moved to

Wilton, Connecticut Wilton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 18,503. In 2017, it was the sixth-wealthiest town per capita in Connecticut, the wealthiest U.S. state per capita. Officially recog ...

, where he lived and traded out of a converted barn. Dalio then worked on the floor of the

and traded commodity

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

. He later worked as the Director of Commodities at Dominick & Dominick LLC. In 1974 he became a futures trader and broker at

Shearson Hayden Stone Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward Shearson run by Sandy Weil, who later became famous for building up

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

. At the firm, Dalio's job was to advise cattle ranchers, grain producers, and other farmers on how to hedge risks, primarily with futures. But he was largely dissatisfied with Shearson Hayden Stone's hierarchical structure, which reminded him of primary education. He longed for the more freedom-based lifestyle of college. At one point, he paid a

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

to drop her clothes in front of a crowd at the annual convention of the California Food and Grain Growers' Association. His creative ways of blowing off steam continued, and exploded on New Year's Eve in 1974 after he went out drinking with some colleagues, including his boss. After a disagreement with his superior, a drunk Dalio punched him in the face. Soon afterward, he was let go from his job at Shearson Hayden Stone.

Founding of Bridgewater Associates

Despite his aggressive behavior, numerous clients at Shearson Hayden Stone retained their trust in Dalio, and continued to allow him to manage their money. With this capital, he was able to scrape together the beginnings of his asset management fund. In 1975, he founded

out of his two-bedroom New York City apartment. Bridgewater started out as a wealth advisory firm, in which capacity it served numerous corporate clients, mostly retained from Dalio's job at Shearson Hayden Stone. The main areas in which Dalio advised were currencies and interest rates. The company began publishing a paid subscription research report, ''Daily Observations'', in which it analyzed global market trends. Dalio's big break came when

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

signed on as a client of his firm. Bridgewater then began to grow rapidly. The firm signed on larger clients, including the pension funds for the

and

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. In 1981 the firm opened an office in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

, which was where Ray and his wife wanted to start a family. Dalio started to become well-known outside of Wall Street after turning a profit from the 1987 stock market crash. The next year, he appeared on an ''

Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'' episode titled "Do Foreigners Own America?" In 1991, he launched Bridgewater's flagship strategy, "Pure Alpha", a reference to the Greek letter that, in Wall Street terminology, represents the surcharge a money manager can earn above a particular market benchmark, such as the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. In 1996, Dalio launched All Weather, a fund that pioneered a steady, low-risk strategy that later became known as

Rise to prominence

Bridgewater Associates became the world's largest hedge fund in 2005. From 1991 to 2005, it lost money in only three calendar years, and never more than 4%. During the same period, the S&P 500 also had three down years, including a negative return of 22.1% in 2002. The fund grew in size by using the standard hedge fund model, which takes a 2% management fee of assets and 20% of yearly profits accrued from using an investment system. By 2005, Dalio was managing money for extremely large entities, including the $196 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the $27 billion Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, (Penn SERS or SERS), Melbourne-based

National Australia Bank National Australia Bank (abbreviated NAB, branded nab) is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "The Big Four") in terms of market capitalisation, earnings and customers. NAB was ranked 21st-la ...

Ltd. and the pension fund of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp. In 2007, Bridgewater suggested there might be a

global financial crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

, and in 2008 Dalio published "How the Economic Machine Works: A Template for Understanding What is Happening Now", an essay assessing the potential of various economies by various criteria. The firm's total assets under management increased to $50 billion in 2007 (up from $33 billion seven years earlier). According to a 2007 article in ''Barron's'' magazine, "nobody was better prepared for the global market crash" than Bridgewater's clients and subscribers to its ''Daily Observations''. The company "began sounding alarms...in the spring of 2007 about the dangers of excessive financial leverage."Ward, Sandra (February 9, 2009
''Recession? No, It's a D-process, and It Will Be Long''
Barrons. Retrieved March 18, 2010 Researchers at the firm examined the public records of most of the world's largest financial entities and discovered that estimated future liabilities related to bad debts totaled $839 billion. When Dalio met with U.S. Treasury Department staff and other White House economic advisors in December, these findings were disclosed but were largely ignored.Cassidy, John (July 25, 2011
''Mastering the Machine''
New Yorker. Retrieved July 2011 Due to this research, Bridgewater's Pure Alpha fund avoided much of the 2008 stock market implosion for its investors.Corkery, Michael and Eder, Steve, June 22, 201
Bridgewater Goes Large
Wall Street Journal, pg C1-C2 In 2008, a disastrous year for many of Bridgewater’s rivals, the firm’s flagship Pure Alpha fund rose in value by 9.5% after accounting for fees. Dalio did this by anticipating that the Federal Reserve would be forced to print a lot of money to revive the economy. He went long on Treasury bonds, shorted the dollar, and bought gold and other commodities. During his 2008 presidential campaign,

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

paid a visit to the firm and spoke to staff. The next year was not as bright. In 2009, when economic growth was higher than expected and the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

increased by 19%, the company's Pure Alpha fund reportedly earned just 2% to 4%. In 2011, Dalio self-published a 123-page volume, ''Principles'', that outlines his philosophy of investment and corporate management. By that same year, Dalio was managing money for the SERS, Kodak, General Motors and the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore. In 2012, he appeared on the annual ''Time'' 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2011 and 2012, ''

Bloomberg Markets ''Bloomberg Markets'' is a magazine published six times a year by Bloomberg L.P. as part of Bloomberg News. Aimed at global financial professionals, ''Bloomberg Markets'' publishes articles on the people and issues related to global financial ma ...

'' listed him as one of the 50 Most Influential people. Under Dalio's leadership, Bridgewater's Pure Alpha II had just three losing years in its history, with an average return of 10.4%. A stake in Bridgewater Associates Intermediate Holdings, LP was purchased by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) for $250 million in February 2012. This stake was non-voting and thus provided the pension fund with very little control of corporate governance. ''Institutional Investor's Alpha'' ranked Dalio No. 2 on its 2012 Rich List. Dalio has controlled Bridgewater Associates alongside co-chief investment officers Bob Prince and Greg Jensen since its inception. The hedge fund recently announced plans to reorganize as a partnership. Dalio said the reason for this was the continued sustainability and profit-sharing of the company. Dalio was co-CEO of Bridgewater for 10 months before announcing in March 2017 that he would step down as part of a company-wide shakeup by April 15. The company had been in a seven-year management and equity transition to find a replacement.

Jon Rubinstein Jonathan J. "Jon" Rubinstein (born October 1956) is an American electrical engineer who played an instrumental role in the development of the iMac and iPod, the portable music and video device first sold by Apple Computer Inc. in 2001. He lef ...

, co-CEO of the fund, was announced to step down with Dalio, but would retain an advisory role. As of October 2017 Bridgewater Associates had $160 billion in assets under management. In reference to the personality that led him to investment success, Dalio has said that he considers himself a "hyperrealist", and that he is motivated to understand the mechanisms that dictate how the world actually functions, without adding in abstract value judgments.

Investment philosophy

Dalio uses multiple strategies with

, allocating capital to each as he sees fit. According to Dalio, Bridgewater Associates is a "global macro firm", investing around economic trends, such as changes in exchange rates, inflation, and G.D.P. growth. The New Yorker called Dalio “a big-picture thinker connected to a street-smart trader". Dalio divides his holdings into two different areas: beta investments and alpha investments. Beta investments produce returns through passive management and normal market risk. Alpha investments are actively managed and aim to generate better returns than beta investments. Alpha investments are not related to the general market. Dalio uses "quantitative" investment methods to identify new investments while avoiding unrealistic historical models.Brewster, Deborah (January 8, 2008) ''The alpha and beta of a lone manager'', Financial Times. Dalio's goal is to structure portfolios with uncorrelated investment returns based on risk allocations rather than asset allocations. Dalio's hedge fund mostly accepts money from institutional clients such as pension funds, foundations, endowments, and central banks. Private investors can rarely invest in Dalio's holdings. When it comes to application, Dalio translates his market insights into algorithms, much like fellow quantitative hedge fund managers David Elliot Shaw and Jim Simons. His strategy mainly focuses on currency and fixed income markets. This is in contrast to buying individual shares in companies, like investors such as

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...

and

Peter Lynch Peter Lynch (born January 19, 1944) is an American investor, mutual fund manager, and philanthropist. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently more th ...

. Dalio also popularized the risk parity approach, which he uses for risk management and diversification within

. Dalio employs an investment strategy that blends conventional diversification with "wagers on or against markets around the world" according to Bloomberg. Dalio's risk parity approach allows for both leverage and external diversification when investing, as well as

short selling In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of a more conventional "long" position, where the investor will profit if the value of the ...

. This allows Dalio to use any asset combination he chooses when investing. Dalio's strategy uses an optimal risk target level as its basis for investing. This is in contrast to first allocating capital and then achieving a risk target. Dalio implements this strategy by using leverage to evenly distribute exposure across various asset classes while maintaining the best risk target level. Dalio began using the term "d-process" in February 2009 to describe the

deleveraging At the micro-economic level, deleveraging refers to the reduction of the leverage ratio, or the percentage of debt in the balance sheet of a single economic entity, such as a household or a firm. It is the opposite of leveraging, which is the prac ...

and

deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). Inflation reduces the value of currency over time, but sudden deflation ...

ary process of the subprime mortgage industry as distinct from a

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, and subsequently incorporated the term into his investment philosophy. Dalio's exact investment portfolios are largely kept a secret from the outside world. This includes most employees as well as external investors, and only a dozen people within his firm understand how it trades at a given time.

Views

Capitalism

While Dalio has stated that

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

is generally the best economic system, he has argued that it needs to be reformed due to it "not working well for most Americans". In April 7, 2019, Dalio said on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' that

income inequality in the United States Income inequality in the United States is the extent to which income is distributed in differing amounts among the American population. It has fluctuated considerably since measurements began around 1915, moving in an arc between peaks in t ...

was a national emergency requiring reform. In July 2019, he again called for refinement of capitalism and called

wealth inequality The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity. The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...

a national emergency. In November 2019, he posted a blog entry stating that excess capital, unfunded social liabilities, and government deficits had created a recipe for disaster, in what he called a "paradigm shift". In May 2020, he stressed the importance of reforming capitalism, not abandoning it, saying, "As the current crisis unfolds, we should remember that throughout history, capitalism has proven to be the best system, though it can sometimes be highly flawed." In October 2020, Dalio said that there has been little income growth for average citizens over the preceding two decades, with the bottom 60% of workers having no inflation-adjusted income growth since the 1980s. He mentioned that income inequality was at its highest level since the 1930s, when the top 1% of earners had more wealth than the bottom 99% combined. Dalio said that the odds of a low-wage earner moving to a higher level of wealth were decreasing over time and that this demonstrated Americans' lower economic and social mobility. He warned that inequality was becoming more entrenched and rising fast. He said that a hypothetical improved capitalism would have to be good at creating a bigger pie and redistributing it as well.

China

In October 2020, Dalio cautioned people to not be blind to China's rise, arguing that it had continued to emerge as a

global superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...

. He claimed that China had succeeded in "exceptional ways", including high economic performance in spite of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, some of the lowest COVID-19 case rates, and being the center of half of all listed

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

s globally. Dalio asserted that when he visited China in 1984, high-ranking officials would marvel at basic technology such as calculators, calling them "miracle devices". He argued that China was now on a par with the U.S. in advanced technologies and would probably take the lead in the next five years. In addition, Dalio said that there were many indicators that favored China. He discussed the growing population of well-educated citizens, as well as China's continued growth in the absorption and processing of data, which many headlines have called "the new oil". Dalio also called China favorable from an investor's perspective. He said that the Chinese economy's fundamentals were strong and its assets relatively attractively priced. Dalio also maintained that China's stocks and bonds were currently underweighted in terms of the global portfolio, and that the U.S. was bloated. A natural shift in pricing would give China another comparative advantage. While stressing that things could always go wrong, Dalio stated that he believed China's path of

economic reform Microeconomic reform (or often just economic reform) comprises policies directed to achieve improvements in economic efficiency, either by eliminating or reducing distortions in individual sectors of the economy or by reforming economy-wide polici ...

would continue, bringing it unabated prosperity. He also downplayed and denied Chinese human rights violations, instead likening the Chinese government to a "strict parent". Dalio's stance on China has garnered criticism. In August 2022, Ray Dalio's Bridgewater wiped its portfolio clean of almost all Chinese stocks, including

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

Bilibili Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its origi ...

NetEase NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications, and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile game ...

JD.com JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong (), internationally known as Joybuy and formerly called 360buy,

, DiDi Global.

Personal life

Family

Dalio lives with his wife Barbara, a descendant of sculptor

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (January 9, 1875 – April 18, 1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, ...

, in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. They have four sons, Devon, Paul, Matthew, and Mark. Their oldest son, Devon, died in an automobile accident in 2020 at age 42. Their second son,

Paul Dalio Paul Dalio (born December 8, 1979) is an American screenwriter, director and composer. His first film, '' Touched with Fire'', inspired by his struggles overcoming bipolar disorder, premiered at SXSW in March 2015 and was released theatrically ...

(born 1979), is a film director.

Health

Dalio has suffered from

Barrett's esophagus Barrett's esophagus is a condition in which there is an abnormal (metaplastic) change in the mucosal cells lining the lower portion of the esophagus, from stratified squamous epithelium to simple columnar epithelium with interspersed goblet ce ...

, a form of

gastroesophageal reflux disease Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is one of the upper gastrointestinal chronic diseases where stomach content persistently and regularly flows up into the esophagus, resulting in symptoms and/ ...

(GERD), a pre-malignant condition that if not treated properly can lead to cancer.

Wealth

In 2011, Dalio was the subject of John Cassidy's ''New Yorker'' article "Mastering the Machine". In 2015, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at $15.4 billion, making him the second-wealthiest hedge fund manager after

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

. In 2014 he reportedly earned $1.1 billion, including a share of his firm's management and performance fees, cash compensation and stock and option awards. In 2018, Dalio was estimated to have personally received $2 billion in compensation for the year, after his fund posted a 14.6% return. According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', Dalio has an estimated net worth of $20 billion as of January 21, 2022, ranking him 88th on their billionaires list and 36th on the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

list. In January 2022, ''Bloomberg News'' reported Dalio's net worth as $15.7 billion, making him the world's 123rd-richest person according to their rankings.

Philanthropy

In April 2011, Dalio and his wife joined

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

and

Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has 236 signatories from 28 countries. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, a ...

, vowing to donate more than half his fortune to charitable causes within his lifetime. He created the Dalio Foundation, which serves as his personal philanthropic vehicle. By the end of 2012, the Dalio foundation had built up assets of $590 million. In 2013, Dalio contributed another $400 million to the foundation, which increased its assets to about $842 million. Through his foundation, Dalio has directed millions in donations to the

David Lynch Foundation The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (or simply DLF) is a global charitable foundation with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded by film director and Transcendental Me ...

, which promotes and sponsors research on

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

. The Dalio Foundation has also contributed to the

National Philanthropic Trust National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) is an American independent public charity that provides philanthropic expertise to donors, foundations and financial institutions. NPT ranks among the largest grantmaking institutions in the United States. NPT sp ...

, to polio eradication projects. Dalio has sat on

NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

's board of trustees since 2020. In February 2020, the Dalio Foundation donated $10 million to support China's coronavirus recovery efforts in response to the

. In March 2020, the foundation gave $4 million to the state of Connecticut to fund healthcare and nutrition. On October 13, 2020, NYP launched the Dalio Center for Health Justice, a research and advocacy organization, which will focus on reducing differences in access to quality health care that overwhelmingly affect communities of color with a gift of $50 million. The money was used to establish the Dalio Center for Health Justice. In a statement, Dalio said, "Our goal is to contribute to equal healthcare and equal education because we believe that these are the most fundamental building blocks of equal opportunity and a just society." The foundation has also supported the Fund for Teachers, an initiative that supports professional learning fellowships for teachers. The foundation was part of a group of foundations supporting the 2018 launch of

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

's Audacious Project, an initiative to fund social entrepreneurs working to solve global issues. In March 2019, ''Forbes'' named Dalio one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers and traders. A special focus of his philanthropy is the world's oceans and the effects of damaging them. Dalio's research yacht and submarine have appeared on the Discovery Channel during Shark Week and have been used to hunt for a giant squid. In 2018,

OceanX OceanX is an ocean exploration initiative founded by Mark Dalio and Ray Dalio, founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, An initiative by Dalio Philanthropies, OceanX is a “mission to explore the ocean and bring it back to the world. O ...

, an initiative of the Dalio family, and

Bloomberg Philanthropies Bloomberg Philanthropies is a philanthropic organization that encompasses all of the charitable giving of founder Michael R. Bloomberg. Headquartered in New York City, Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses its resources on five areas: the environmen ...

committed $185 million over four years to protect the oceans. In 2019, Dalio pledged $100 million to Connecticut public schools. Dalio has also backed the Volcker Alliance, the public policy group headed by former Federal Reserve chair

Paul Volcker Paul Adolph Volcker Jr. (September 5, 1927 – December 8, 2019) was an American economist who served as the 12th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. During his tenure as chairman, Volcker was widely credited with having ended the ...

. Overall, the Dalio family has donated more than $5 billion to his foundation, and the foundation has given out more than $1 billion in charitable grants.

Hobbies

Dalio is an avid outdoorsman, and enjoys both hunting and fishing. He has hunted cape buffalo,

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondr ...

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

and

warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly cons ...

. He is especially fond of bow-hunting, which is his weapon of choice when hunting.

Published works

''How the Economic Machine Works; A Template for Understanding What is Happening Now'' is Dalio's first book, published in 2007''.'' In it, he describes the economy as a machine. His stated aim for the book was to explain how the economic machine works, as he saw many people did not understand. By defining money properly as credit instead of aggregates (currency plus M1, M2 money supply etc.), the total amount of debt in the U.S. is $50 trillion, whereas the total amount of money is $3 trillion. Dalio explains the government "prints" money and uses it to combat some of the consequences of contracting credit. This is reflected in money growing at an extremely fast rate at the same time as credit and real economic activity contract. Dalio argues that if the money printing occurs on a large enough level, it devalues the currency, decreases interest rates and drives investors from financial assets to inflation hedge assets. '' Principles: Life & Work'' is Dalio's second book, published in 2017 by Simon and Schuster. It was a ''New York Times'' #1 bestseller and Amazon's #1 business book of 2017. The catalyst for the book was a frank memo from his top lieutenants in 1993 about his interpersonal performance as a manager at

. Following the harsh but realistic critique, Dalio began to develop a unique company culture based on principles and unadorned feedback. He originally published a shorter version of ''Principles'' online in 2011, which received over three million downloads. He has announced that he will write a second volume, ''Principles: Economics & Investing''. Dalio has said that he could continue improving his returns by solidifying recurring lessons into "principles". ''Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises'' is Dalio's third book, published in 2018. In it, he provides a substructure for interpreting the mechanics of large debt plights. Dalio sets out six stages, from the roots of the crisis to its rectification. He analyzes 48 historical examples of debt crises when real GDP growth fell by 3% or more, in various historical economies, including developed and prosperous countries as well as emerging economies. Dalio categorizes big debt crises into two types—deflationary and inflationary—and provides historical and economic contexts for both, as well as lessons that can be learned from them. The first type of debt crisis is deflationary. Dalio says that deflationary debt rotations generally happen when the majority of debt is denominated in a country’s own currency. An example of a country with this type of issue is Japan. Dalio believes it is possible for legislators to handle these scenarios relatively well, but even a good end result will be extremely costly to some people. The second type of scenario is inflationary. Inflationary debt cycles occur when most debt is denominated in foreign currencies. This situation makes it harder for a country’s policymakers to adjust risk and spread it out, a key step in resolving the crisis. Dalio says that the legislators must choose the beneficiaries and who suffers. This process often necessitates a need to recapitalize systemically important institutions, such as large banks. Dalio's newest book, ''The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail,'' was published on November 16, 2021.

Awards and honors

In 2012, Dalio received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

presented by

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...

co-founder

David Rubenstein David Mark Rubenstein (born August 11, 1949) is an American billionaire businessman. A former government official and lawyer, he is a co-founder and co-chairman of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group,CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

listed ''Principles'' among the 13 Best Business Books of 2017. Dalio was called the "Steve Jobs of Investing" by ''aiCIO Magazine'' and ''Wired Magazine.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalio, Ray 1949 births American billionaires American commodities traders American derivatives traders American financiers American hedge fund managers American investors American money managers American people of Italian descent American stock traders Businesspeople from Greenwich, Connecticut Giving Pledgers 21st-century philanthropists Harvard Business School alumni Long Island University alumni People from Jackson Heights, Queens Stock and commodity market managers Living people American business writers Chief investment officers