Famous Traders: Ray Dalio

Raymond (Ray) Thomas Dalio is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist. Ray was born in Jackson Heights, New York City and is the son of Marino Dallolio, a jazz musician. He first got interested in trading at the age of 12, when he purchased shares of Northeast Airlines for $300, when they merged with another company he tripled his investment.

He went on to attend C.W. Post College of Long Island University and obtained a Bachelor degree in finance. He then moved on to Harvard Business School, where he received his M.B.A. He later founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975, from his two bedroom apartment in New York, and within 10 years they received a $5 million investment from the World Bank’s retirement fund.

After finishing his education, he started working for the New York Stock Exchange on their trading floor, he traded commodity futures there. Followed by Dominick & Dominick LLC, as Director of Commodities then, in 1974 he then furthered his career at Shearson Hayden Stone as a futures trader and broker. The pinnacle of his career came in 1975 when he founded Bridgewater Associates from his apartment. Opening an office in Westport, Connecticut in 1981 then in 2005 went on to become the world’s largest hedge fund.

His first work was published in 2008 ‘How the Economic Machine Works’ which was a guide for understanding what is happening now and assessing the potential of various economies using a variety of formulas. Followed by a self-published book in 2011 ‘Principles’, which explains his philosophy on investment and corporate management, gained from his knowledge of observing, analysing and his hand on approach via his hedge fund. In 2011 and 2012 he was listed on Bloomberg Markets as one of the 50 most influential people! Also in 2012 he featured on the annual Time 100 List of the 100 most influential people in the world. Followed by Investor’s Alpha grading him №2 on their 2012 Rich List. As of July 2020 American business magazine Forbes claimed Ray has an estimated net worth of $18.6 billion which made him the 69th richest person in the world and 26thon the Forbes 400 list.

Another good year for Ray was 2014 where he apparently earnt $1.1 billion, this included a share of Bridgewater’s management and achievement fees, stock and option awards and cash compensation. After being the co-CEO of Bridgewater for 10 months he declared in March 2017 that he would be stepping down, due to a restructuring of the company. October 2017 was a remarkable year for Bridgewater Associates, achieving $160 billion in assets they had under management. 2018 Bridgewater gave their employees a stake in the company via forming a collaboration, this was to ensure Bridgewater would continue to sustain itself in the future.

Ray’s first book was published in 2017 ‘Principles: Life & Work.’ Which profiles his life and work beliefs and the success of his and Bridgewater’s Associates. It went on to become a New York Times №1 bestseller and Amazon’s №1 business book of 2017. Further books followed, ‘Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises’ published in 2018. This was Ray and Bridgewater’s first book of sharing their knowledge and research on economic events, in fact it enabled them to predict the 2008 Financial Crisis. ‘Why and How Capitalism Needs to be Reformed’ published in 2019 and ‘The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail’ due to be published in 2021.

Charitable causes are very important to Ray, therefore The Dalio Foundation was formed. They have made donations to NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, The Fund for Teachers, The National Philanthropic Trust, David Lynch Foundation, OceanX, public schools in Connecticut and supported the launch of TED’s Audacious Project. In 2011 he and his wife joined forces with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in their Giving Pledge. Pledging to donate more than half of his fortune to charities during his lifetime.

To end on a quotes by Ray Dalio

‘If you are not aggressive, you are not going to make money, and if you are not defensive, you are not going to keep money.’

Ray is now worth $16.9 billion dollars, so I guess he adheres to this quote…