Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they've bought and sold via "13F" filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.
Today let's look at Bridgewater Associates, representing the world's largest hedge fund -- and, in 2010 and 2011, the best-performing hedge fund, as well. Bridgewater was founded by Ray Dalio, who focuses on macroeconomic factors as he makes his investment decisions -- factors such as inflation, currency exchange rates, and GDP growth. He's clearly rather skilled, as the size of Bridgewater attests.
It can be hard to find sufficiently promising places to park your money, when you have so many billions to invest, but Bridgewater partly solves that problem with index funds, recently holding about 37% of its value in the S&P 500 SDPR ETF and 23% in the Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF. The overall portfolio value, as of June 30, 2012, was $6.7 billion.
Interesting developments
So what does Bridgewater Associates' latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:
New holdings include Cliffs Natural Resources
Among holdings in which Bridgewater Associates increased its stake is semiconductor fabrication equipment supplier Applied Materials
Bridgewater Associates reduced its stake in a lot of companies, including Broadcom
Finally, Bridgewater Associates unloaded plenty of companies, such as Qualcomm
We should never blindly copy any investor's moves, no matter how talented the investor. But it can be useful to keep an eye on what smart folks are doing, and 13-F forms can be great places to find intriguing candidates for our portfolios.
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