Bridgewater Bets $1.5 billion on Upcoming Market Drop

Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates LP has bet more than $1 billion that stock markets around the world will fall by March. The wager, assembled over the past few months and executed by a handful of Wall Street firms, would pay off for the world’s biggest hedge fund if either the S&P 500 or the Euro Stoxx 50—or both—declines, some of the people said.

It is made up of put options, which are contracts that give investors the right to sell stocks at a specific price, known as a strike, by a certain date. They allow investors to shell out a relatively small amount of cash to hedge a larger portfolio or make a directional wager. The options expire in March and currently represent one of the largest bearish bets against the market.

Bridgewater paid roughly $1.5 billion for the options contracts, or just about 1% of the Westport, Conn., firm’s $150 billion in assets under management, according to people familiar with the matter.

The options contracts are tied to around $100 billion worth of the indexes, said people familiar with the matter. How much the firm stands to potentially make would depend on many factors, including the magnitude of any market decline and the timing of when the firm cashes in its bet.
let me get this straight. a firm with 150 billion in assets hedges it with less than 1% of committed known risk after a year where indexes are up over 20% and this is big news? if really worried they would have done more!
 
Amahrix,

What is your suggestion for me?

Great question, since day traders like yourself are either long or short the market and generally speaking are flat outright price risk (neutral) when not engaged in a very brief duration intraday bet. SMH. :banghead:

If you carry a core long position in your trading account you can lighten up on it - and maybe think more for yourself and take less advice from someone who asked two weeks in another thread how to convert ZN quotes to English and how option strikes work on Ten Year Note futures. :rolleyes:
 
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I charted the 10 year and the timing is looking good. Was about 9 months after the bond broke out that the markets got crushed last time. We're coming up on the same timeframe once Dec hits.
 
Great question, since day traders like yourself are either long or short the market and generally speaking are flat outright price risk (neutral) when not engaged in a very brief duration intraday bet. SMH. :banghead:

If you carry a core long position in your trading account you can lighten up on it - and maybe think more for yourself and take less advice from someone who asked two weeks in another thread how to convert ZN quotes to English and how option strikes work on Ten Year Note futures. :rolleyes:
Thanks bone and good post.

I am just challenging Amahrix opinion. Even if I don't agree with people, I like to hear their side of the story. It's just causal conversation. Please trust every letter of what I am about to say below.

I have been buying the S&P 500 index since 2008 every two weeks in my 401k like clockwork, there isn't a Human or cartel main punisher that will make me change my mind. Never and Ever. I don't give a damn if Aliens drop from the sky tommorow. I don't give a damn if the S&P500 goes to 0 tomorrow as well........My black ass will be buying the S&P500 every two weeks when I get paid until my overall balance is 1.5 Million dollars.

When and if I become a full time trader, my black ass will be buying the S&P 500 every two week in some kind of IRA account.

Day trading is skill set I building for long term wealth building.
 
No, not if you take their press statement and Dahlio’s subsequent comments at face value.

Since they’re calling it a hedge the puts are making their long equity positions more delta neutral in terms of overall portfolio risk.

The methodology they are using is to make money as a relative value play - that is, the carefully selected long equity names in their portfolio are stronger than the broad index put premium losses in a rally; or conversely, in a sell off their carefully selected long equity names retain more value than the broad market index put exposure.

It’s textbook classic relative value portfolio balancing.


You're absolutely right.

Did anyone here even traded option? THEY PAID 1.5 BULLION PREMIUM. THIS IS HUGE If there is a sharp market drop it could turn in 10-20 ... billions fast
 
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Billionaire Ray Dalio Says Bridgewater Is Not Betting the Markets Will Fall

...........

The firm declined to comment on its specific positions, but said in a statement to Barron’s that “the way we manage money is to have many interrelated positions, often to hedge other positions, and these change often, so that it would be a mistake to look at any one position at any one time to try to deduce the motivation behind that position.” Then Dalio wrote a response of his own, one that was much stronger. “The Wall Street Journal wrote an article that said ‘Bridgewater Bets Big on Market Drop,’” Dalio wrote on LinkedIn. “It’s wrong. I want to make clear that we don’t have any such net bet that the stock market will fall.”

.........

https://www.barrons.com/articles/ra...billion-bet-the-markets-will-fall-51574434971
 
IMHO, I think being very long and strong, as @SimpleMeLike posted, or having any unhedged directional bet in the market right now, is folly. We got Trump with his trigger finger on both the Hong Kong bill signing, and the trade deal stuff.

Who the hell knows what the weekend will bring on actions and headlines. I learnt my lessons, and it is costing me potential income. But better to be flat and safe than fat and unhappy.
Overnight,

If your premise is to exit the market, when will you re-enter the market?

My strategy is to continue to buy the market rather the market is going all the way down or all the way up. I have statsitcal evidence that over time, the probability of me making alot of money in XX years is very high if I just continiuously buy. Also, it is very easy to just buy with out a thinking. Even a monkey can do it and win.

I am not a smart of enough man to predict market direction long term.

Also, if you can't beat the market, then join the market.
 
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