Who Is Ray Dalio?

By Lyle Daly – Updated May 28, 2026 at 1:00 AM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater, evolving it from advisory to a hedge fund with a $55.8 billion net gain.
Dalio's All Weather Portfolio includes gold for inflation resistance, with diversified asset investments.
He promotes rotating expensive stocks for undervalued ones, enhancing portfolio adaptability.

Ray Dalio is a billionaire investor who started Bridgewater Associates. For more than 40 years, he managed its assets directly and made it one of the most profitable hedge funds in history. Let's take a closer look at what Dalio has done at Bridgewater, the strategies that have made him a famous investor, and highlights of his illustrious career.

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Gold nuggets with a stock chart in the foreground. — Image source: Getty Images.

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One way Dalio diversifies his portfolio is by holding gold. A well-known Dalio investment strategy, the All Weather Portfolio traditionally allocates 7.5% to gold and is Dalio's signature strategy for managing wealth during troubled economic times.

Dalio is unique in that he's not a pure buy-and-hold investor. He believes in taking profits on expensive stocks and reinvesting. He calls this practice "rotating the portfolio." Appropriate targets for reinvestment are undervalued stocks -- good companies that are lagging the economy or their sector.

Career highlights

After starting his career as a wealth manager, Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975. Bridgewater was originally an advisory firm that provided risk consulting to corporate clients, with one of the first major clients being McDonald's (MCD -0.10%). Over time, Bridgewater transitioned into a hedge fund.

Dalio and Bridgewater gained recognition for making a profit in 1987 stock market crash. Bridgewater launched its first investment fund, Pure Alpha, in 1991. It aims to balance risk by investing across a range of uncorrelated asset classes. This was followed by the All Weather fund in 1996 and the Pure Alpha Major Markets fund in 2010.

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Dalio's macro perspective earned Bridgewater special acclaim in the 2000s. As a longtime student of the economy, Dalio saw signs of trouble before the 2008 financial crisis. He adjusted the Bridgewater portfolios to prepare for a recession, and the move paid off. In 2008, Bridgewater's Pure Alpha fund grew by 9.4%, while the average hedge fund lost almost 19% and the S&P 500 lost 37%.

From 1975 through 2023, Bridgewater delivered net gains of $55.8 billion to investors. The Pure Alpha fund had only four losing calendar years out of the 32 years from 1991 through 2023.

Philosophy & legacy

From the beginning, Dalio's philosophy at Bridgewater was to foster a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. He has written that he believes in radical openness because if you're open-minded, you're less likely to deceive yourself, and others are more likely to give you honest feedback.

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Radical open-mindedness and radical transparency are invaluable for rapid learning and effective change. Learning is the product of a continuous real-time feedback loop in which we make decisions, see their outcomes, and improve our understanding of reality as a result.
Ray Dalio

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Dalio bases his investment philosophy largely on his understanding of the economy or, as he calls it, the "Economic Machine." Investors can watch Dalio's 30-minute video How the Economic Machine Works for a primer on his view of the economy.

Dalio has published several books describing his philosophies and thoughts on economics. The most well-known is Principles: Life & Work, published in 2017, which describes the principles for success he developed at Bridgewater. His other books include:

Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises (first published in 2018)
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail (published in 2021)
How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle (published in 2025)

Awards, honors, and recognition

Dalio has received numerous accolades throughout his lengthy career in finance. Here's a selection of Dalio's notable honors:

LCH Investments named Dalio the top money manager in the world in 2012.
Dalio was on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.
Dalio was also on Bloomberg's ranking of the 50 most influential people in the world in 2011, 2012, and 2015.

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About the Author

Lyle Daly is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering information technology and cryptocurrency. Lyle has been a contributor at the financial services company since 2018. His work has been featured on USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Fox Business, and Nasdaq. Before joining The Motley Fool, he wrote for financial brands including Intuit.

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Lyle Daly has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $320 calls on McDonald's and short January 2028 $340 calls on McDonald's. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.