Rob Copeland

The 12th episode of Read the Bull is an engrossing interview with New York Times Finance reporter Rob Copeland discussing his book "The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend." Taped in front of live audience at the historic Troutbeck Inn, Rob and host Stefan Prelog have a lively conversation about Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates. Rob started covering Bridgewater and Dalio more than a decade ago.  Rob noted that it was Dalio's meteoric rise outside the world of hedge funds and investing that interested him in writing about him. He knew about Bridgewater's secretive culture, but as he started reporting on Ray and the firm for the Wall Street Journal, more details started to emerge about what was really going on at the $93B hedge fund that Dalio started in 1975. Rob recounts those initial stories revealed that Dalio was trying to build software that would make day-to-day management tasks like hiring, firing and other decisions, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  

The system was under the auspices of Dalio all in the name of radical transparency, which was the cornerstone of Bridgewater and Dalio's philosophy. The philosophy was based on an ever-growing set of principles that were started by Dalio and eventually put into a book that was part memoir and part management/leadership manifesto. Rob discusses how the Principles were a retro-fit, an approach by Dalio to come up with rules that he touted as keys to success for personal growth, but the reality was much different.
 
Eventually the truth is revealed and the real image of Dalio starts to emerge. Copeland, through intrepid reporting, presents a much different portrait of the one Dalio has carefully curated and wants people to believe. How did Dalio really build his business, was Bridgewater a cult, was the fund really just a Ponzi scheme? 

Stefan presses Rob on these questions, but the truth is more complicated. You'll need to listen to the interview and decide for yourself.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.