Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund, is possibly a fraud [according to Jim Grant]
Keep in mind, James Grant is a highly respected financial writer, and Columbia alumnus. He predicted the collapse of Lehman, and correctly forecasted many other calamities.
I had a similar "gut feeling" about Bridgewater, the details of which I will not elaborate on. Suffice to say, if you follow the large funds on a daily basis (as I do), and scrutinize their founders/strategies/general culture, a few of them are more suspect than the others. I'm glad to see someone as well versed as Grant echo my thoughts; his explanation and due diligence are far superior to anything I could produce.
The full text is available as subscription only via Grants Observer.
ZeroHedge has kindly pulled out all the important bits:
ZeroHedge - Is Bridgewater A Fraud?
"you wonder why such a sophisticated shop would stoop to such a retail stratagem."
Bridgewater is the most hyped hedge fund out there. For the life of me, I can't figure out what their investment professionals actually do. It seems like they just pontificate on economic history, macro theory, and jack each other off while reading Dalio's "Principles."
lol. It appears to be an intense culture.
Waits patiently for someone to ask about the culture at Bridgewater.
Several operational due diligence consulting firms have raised concerns on Bridgewater before. To play devil's advocate, Bloomberg's rebuttal of Grant's observations also make sense:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-13/the-case-against-bri…
I think Matt Levine has really come up with the best analysis and explanation of the BW phenomenon: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-02-05/bridgewater-s-bosses…
This is fucking hilarious.
Interestingly Grant decided to apologize for this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-13/bridgewater-is-said-…
Really weak points. A few targeted rebuttals:
Employees at BNYM - Bridgewater has had a huge multi-year tech integration / process outsourcing project with BNYM. Not at all unreasonable for some staff to have switched teams to manage the process and/or do the same jobs for the outsourcing partner
ETF holdings - Bridgewater was a pioneer in alpha-beta separation and have published overviews of how their All Weather (pure beta) strategy leverages ETF holdings to create balanced exposure to all economic cycles
Ponzi Scheme, jk hehehe
Grant always struck me as a fraud.
Make big claims. One comes true. Live on that fame. Hope everyone forgets every other idea you put out there that lost money.
Can't be a fraud since 1975, $49 Bn in investment returns to its clients.
However, you can question the "believably matrix" and pain points the radical transparency cult culture.
Dalio has a new book out this year on his "Principles".
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