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."

12 Comments
 
Best Response

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

 

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