IL22: The Fund - The Other Side of Dalio & Bridgewater ft. Rob Copeland

In this episode we talk to Rob Copeland, New York Times reporter and author of the bestselling new book: The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates and the Unravelling of a Wall Street Legend. Bridgewater is the world’s largest hedge fund and its founder, Ray Dalio, claims to run his firm based on The Principles, rules for life and work that argue for complete honesty and transparency. His most famous Principle: Pain + Reflection = Progress. But Copeland, who has covered Bridgewater for years as a Wall Street Journal reporter paints a radically different picture. Instead of encouraging truth, Copeland’s book documents a rigged feedback system that keeps Dalio permanently at the top and a culture where fear of upsetting Dalio suppresses the truth rather than encourages it. Copeland also claims that Bridgewater’s investment process is far less systematic than it claims, with Dalio ‘calling the shots’. Bridgewater strongly disputes all of these conclusions.

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Episode TimeStamps:

02:10 - Introduction to Rob Copeland and his book

04:37 - Copelands's relation to Ray Dalio and how the book started

09:14 - How Copeland reacted to lawsuit threats

11:03 - The logic behind the "baseball cards" concept

13:03 - How Dalio interpreted and rigged the outcome of the baseball cards

14:52 - How well known was Dalio's "rigged" rankings?

16:06 - How did Dalio's "trial" methods work?

21:03 - What can we learn from Ray Dalio's principles?

23:12 - How the MC Cycle functioned

27:55 - What is Dalio's core skill?

29:46 - Did Dalio believe in his own principles?

33:03 - Why Copeland is comfortable with his narrative about Dalio?

38:00 - Why don't we see a bigger footprint from Bridgewater in the markets?

40:57 - Did Bridgewater investors not notice?

44:30 - Key takeaways from Niels

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