The Fund
Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
-
-
4.2 • 168 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
The unauthorized, unvarnished story of famed Wall Street hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio. An instant New York Times bestseller!
Ray Dalio does not want you to read this book.
When the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced in 2022 that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles. In The Fund, award-winning New York Times journalist Rob Copeland punctures this carefully-constructed narrative of the benevolent business titan, exposing his much-promoted “principles” as one of the great feats of hubris in modern memory—in practice, they encouraged a toxic culture of paranoia and backstabbing.
The Fund is a page-turning, stranger-than-fiction journey into a rarefied world of wealth and power. It offers an unflinching look at the pain so often caused by the “radical transparency” Dalio has described as a core tenet of his recipe for business success and a meaningful life. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with those inside and around the firm, Copeland takes readers into the room as former FBI director Jim Comey kisses Dalio's ring, recent Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick drinks the Kool-Aid, and a rotating cast of memorable characters grapple with their personal psychological and moral limits—all under the watchful eye of their charismatic leader.
This is a cautionary tale for anyone convinced that the ability to make lots of money has anything at all to do with unlocking the principles of human nature.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This detailed look into the world of a controversial finance guru has all the high-stakes drama of a classic American novel. Rob Copeland digs into the many layers of mystique surrounding Ray Dalio, who built Bridgewater Associates into the biggest hedge fund on the planet. Through exhaustive research, Copeland follows the Dalio/Bridgewater story from the beginning, taking the time to spotlight the diciest aspects of the company’s evolution, from its way-too-chummy relationships with foreign political players to Dalio’s dynamic with onetime Bridgewater attorney and future FBI director James Comey. There’s nothing Copeland is afraid to dig into—Bridgewater even brought a lawsuit to try to stop this book from being published. The Fund is a fascinating look at power in America and the wealthy few who wield it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nutty doctrine and cutthroat office politics prevailed at the world's largest hedge fund, according to this searing debut exposé. New York Times reporter Copeland follows the career of Ray Dalio, founder of the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund, finding that contrary to the billionaire's claims to have instituted a strictly rational trading system, decisions were often directed by Dalio's haphazard guesses. (Dalio's habit of seeing recessions around every corner often led to losing bets, Copeland argues.) Investigating the fund's bizarre office politics, Copeland explains that Dalio implemented a "radical transparency" regime under which employees were compelled to rate each other on fuzzy metrics like "believability," and new hires confessed their weaknesses while facing a totem pole. Surveillance was extensive; meetings were recorded and replayed to find expressions of wrong-think, and in one particularly egregious instance staffers were enlisted to monitor company urinals after Dalio spotted pee on the bathroom floor. Writing with droll aplomb, Copeland takes a torch to Dalio's reputation as a Wall Street savant, instead finding him an egotistical billionaire with a penchant for cruelty (he once publicly reduced to tears an employee whose work he was dissatisfied with, shouting "You're a dumb shit!... You don't even know what you don't know"). The result is a hugely entertaining depiction of unbridled wealth colliding with unhinged folly.
Customer Reviews
Interesting
Appears to be too subjective in views. Having worked in investment banking for 35+ years there are many cultures that could be reviewed as well. All are different.
Boring
Real snooze fest. Who didn’t know Dalio was a nut job? He’s been calling for a stock market crash the last 15 years…Sooner or later he will right and considered a genius. What a numbskull.
Fact over fiction
Wonderful, gripping read. Highly recommended.