page_title: Bridgewater Associates
section_title: 1975-1990: Consulting, research, money management
hierarchical_section_title: Bridgewater Associates / History / 1975-1990: Consulting, research, money management
caption_attribution_description: Panoramic view over the water towards the Bridgewater Associates' campus
context_page_description: Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975. The firm serves institutional clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments, and central banks.
  It utilizes a global macro investing style based on economic trends such as inflation, currency exchange rates, and U.S. gross domestic product. Bridgewater Associates began as an institutional investment advisory service, graduated to institutional investing, and pioneered the risk parity investment approach in 1996.
  In 1981, the company moved its headquarters from New York City to Westport, Connecticut, and currently engages 1,500 employees. As of April 2020, it had approximately US$138 billion in assets under management.
context_section_description: Bridgewater Associates was founded by Ray Dalio in 1975 from an office in his Manhattan apartment. At that time, the business consisted exclusively of advising corporate clients and the management of domestic and international currency and interest rate risks. The firm later changed its emphasis and began selling economic advice to governments and corporations such as Nabisco and McDonald's.
  The company began publishing a paid subscription research report called the Daily Observations which inspired McDonald's Corp. and its main supplier to  become clients in the early 1980s. Another client was Banks of Mid-America and its treasury department director, Bob Prince, later joined Bridgewater Associates as co-CIO. In 1981, the company moved its offices from New York City to Connecticut.
  The company's first account was funded by a US$5 million fixed-income investment through Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg of World Bank in 1987. In the mid-1980s, the firm changed its business focus from currency and interest rate management to global bonds and currencies for institutional investors. As a fixed income and currency adviser to institutional clients, the company gained a reputation as a currency trader and a developer of techniques for overlaying currencies. In 1990, it launched a hedge fund portfolio using monies from Kodak and Loews Corporation and began formally offering its currency overlay products to its clients.
caption: View of lake and trees surrounding the corporate headquarters in Westport, Connecticut
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