Bridgewater Associates is one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, launched and managed by one of the wealthiest investors in the world, renowned billionaire Ray Dalio. He actually founded the fund when he was very young – 26 years, which was back in 1975. And it all happened out of his two-bedroom apartment. Interestingly, his passion for investing started even earlier – when he was 12 years old, that’s when he bought his first shares, which ended up tripling in value. Before launching Bridgewater Associates, which is a multi-strategy hedge fund, Ray Dalio was trading futures at Shearson Hayden Stone. He graduated from Long Island University (CW Post) with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and from Harvard Business School with an MBA.
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During the first three months of 2019, Bridgewater Associates added 85 new positions to its equity portfolio, while also dumping 154 positions, ending up with more around 300 holdings. At the end of the quarter, its 13F portfolio carried a value of $16.33 billion. Most important quarterly additions were Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS), TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:AMTD), and Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE:RLGY). Among the stocks in which the fund decided to boost its stake were Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets Index Fund ETF Shares (NYSE:VWO), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE:EEM), SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY), iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE:IEMG), and SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD).
Bridgewater Associates’ top quarterly exists included United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG), and Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP). And the top positions that were cut during the quarter were iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:IVV), Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS), Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE:URI), and Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY).
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
