Ray Dalio was Blindsided by the Coronavirus Market Rout, and Now His Flagship Fund is Down 20% this Year (Business Insider) Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio was caught off guard by the coronavirus-fueled market sell-off this month, he told the Financial Times. The founder of Bridgewater Associates– the world’s largest hedge fund with about $160 billion in assets under management – didn’t escape stocks, commodities, and other assets before they tumbled in recent days. “We did not know how to navigate the virus and chose not to because we didn’t think we had an edge in trading it,” Dalio told the Financial Times on Sundau. “So, we stayed in our positions and in retrospect we should have cut all risk.”
HEDGE: noun 3. protect oneself against loss on (a bet or investment) by making balancing or compensating transactions. "the company hedged its investment position on the futures market"
Well I’d assume once you realize the markets reaction, it’s not that easy to get 160 billion out of the market. Even a hedge would have to take awhile to put on. Just assuming. Never tried to hedge a 160 billion dollar portfolio.
Ray's got balls to come out and say what he did. But hard to hide. Even my 92 year old mother can make bank in a bull market. (We have not told her what HD did today.) But the real test is in a Big Bear. As mentioned, it is hard to turn a $160 billion battleship around, especially when everything is going - down. Are you a Pro? Anyone can make money in a Bull Market. A little swing here and another there and wow I must know something. Then there is stuff like shooting out the stops, and margin calls, and losing lots and lots of liquidity... True test is when the whip comes down. If you pulled down Big banking this week congratulations. You are a Pro.
Although this was a speedy drop, still took weeks, so plenty of time. If they can't hedge and read the market, I dunno, maybe they shouldn't be in the hedge fund business or they shouldn't be that big. I am not blaming him, 80-90% of the HFs are in the same situation, they are just not saying. Hey, not everyone can see the market top, like me. I just don't get why they hire all those Ivy league people then???
Maybe his prime broker is about done dumping his long gold position to pay for margin calls elsewhere, so gold can finally get it up lol. Ever since gold spiked a tad above the 17 handle, it's been in a darn if you do darn if you don't situation: When equities crash, gold gets sold for margin calls. When equities shine (briefly...) gold is shunned. Anyways, Ray was telling the Davos crowd "Cash is Trash" about a month ago. He sure could use some cash these days