It is in Bridgewater's DNA to innovate, unshackled by conventions. As a result, over the last 30 years, Bridgewater has pioneered several investment strategies, including currency overlay management in the 1980s, the separation of alpha and beta in the early 1990s and inflation-linked bond management in the mid 1990s. Bridgewater began managing assets in its optimal alpha strategy Pure Alpha® in 1991 and its optimal beta strategy All Weather® in 1996.
Bridgewater manages approximately $75 billion* in global investments for a wide array of institutional clients, including foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations. Bridgewater has over 900 employees and is based in Westport, Connecticut.
*Bridgewater's assets under management fell from $165 billion to $75 billion between 2006 and 2009. This reduction in assets did not represent net client withdrawals. Rather, it reflected Bridgewater and its clients agreeing to shift its management of traditional accounts that require more funding to its higher target volatility comingled funds, which require less funding for the same return/risk target. The total size of positions which Bridgewater holds on behalf of its clients is approximately the same even though actual amounts deposited are less. In 2009 Bridgewater completed the transition of all traditional single-asset class mandates.