Daily Beast's Daniel Gross writes: In the Northeast, spring is in the air, and at Ivy League
schools, kids are planning their postgraduate futures. But this year, many of
the smart young finance things who used to flood to positions at name-brand
banks in lower Manhattan are casting their sights elsewhere. It’s not a bank.
It’s not in New York. And it’s not a century-old global institution with a
patrician name.
It’s Bridgewater Associates. Based in Westport, Connecticut,
and founded and led by a person who is equal parts investing savant and shaman,
Bridgewater might best be described as an alternative alternative
asset-management company. It’s the creation of Ray Dalio, who was memorably
described in a great New Yorker profile by John Cassidy thusly: “He looked a
bit like an aging member of a British progressive-rock group.” Big shots like
Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital may garner the
headlines. But in recent years Dalio and Bridgewater have ridden new investment
flows and superior performance to become America’s largest hedge fund, with
about $145 billion in assets.
Bridgewater, which has 1,300 employees, isn’t for ex-jocks
or day traders. Rather, it tends to attract—and look for—self-styled
intellectuals and deep thinkers who like constructing arguments as much as they
enjoy constructing portfolios. It’s “the thinking Yalie’s destination,” as one
recent Yale graduate put it. Undergrads at Harvard report that the scandal-free
firm is more desirable than Goldman Sachs, previously the ne plus ultra for
young grads on the make. “Bridgewater is very popular because it is one of the
few hedge funds that will accept people right out of college,…”
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