World's Biggest Hedge Fund to Launch a New $10 Billion Fund

The world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is close to launching a new $10 billion hedge fund, the Wall Street Journal is reporting Wednesday. Bridgewater will now manage more than $100 billion in global investments for a wide variety of investors, including foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations. Based in Westport, Connecticut, the company employs approximately 1,200 people. The Journal report notes that "Hedge funds are mopping up billions from big investors with few other places to park their cash in an era of ultralow interest rates and volatile stock-market returns. Industry assets as of March 31 topped the peak of early 2008 ..." The new fund has returned about 11% so far this year, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. Bridgewater was founded in 1975 by Ray Dalio. Employees are required to read the company manifesto, Principles, which spans 110 pages. It includes Dalio's philosophies about life, work, and the pursuit of greatness. “Empathy and kindness aren't a top priority there,” a former Bridgewater employee told New York Magazine. In 2010, Bridgewater had its best year ever, earning a nearly 45% return on its most aggressive fund on its way to a total earnings of more than $15 billion. The New York Magazine report notes that "Those returns—which CNBC ­noted were greater than the 2010 profits of Google

, Amazon

, Yahoo

, and eBay

combined—vaulted Bridgewater even further ahead in the hedge-fund rankings and reportedly netted Dalio a personal windfall of more than $3 billion."