‘Don’t take gossip as gospel’: GEC co-founder on Ray Dalio book; author Rob Copeland responds

Greenwich Economic Forum co-founder Bruce McGuire said that the new book on billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio’s approach to life and investment is to see the bigger picture. McGuire said that one must not “take gossip as gospel”. Author Rob Copeland, who wrote the book on Dalio, titled ‘THE FUND: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend’ responded to McGuire’s social media post and said that he is free to borrow Dalio’s language. 

“In defense of Ray Dalio: It's hard to escape the hubbub about Rob Copeland's new book on Ray Dalio. As someone who knows Mr. Dalio personally, I'll say this: Don't take gossip as gospel,” said McGuire in a LinkedIn post, sharing an example from the book on criticism that Dalio does not share any actionable stock picks. 

“That criticism reflects a misunderstanding of who Dalio is and his thoughts about the financial markets. True, you can't hunt through his musings for stock ideas to reverse engineer, like so many try to do with Warren Buffett. Dalio is an historian and a macro thinker, and his investment methodologies reflect that. He preaches historical causes and effects, and diversification,” he said. 

Calling Dalio a “Renaissance man” who loves business, history, his family, community and friends, McGuire said that he built Bridgewater Associates from scratch. “In a world quick to judge, remember that Ray Dalio's approach to life and investing is about seeing the bigger picture,” he said. 

Rob Copeland, author of the book said in response: “Hi Bruce, I’m the author of the book. I appreciate you taking the time to read it (if you did). The book doesn’t contain a word about whether Ray ever gave an “actionable stock pick.” As for whether an independently reported and vigorously vetted book is “gossip,” you are certainly free to borrow Ray’s language there. The fact is that the book is based on interviews with hundreds of people inside and outside of Bridgewater. It is not based on my personal relationship with Ray or anyone else. Thank you again for sharing your perspective.”

The book does not paint the most flattering image of Ray Dalio as an employer. He has been portrayed as a leader who increasingly got agitated by the smallest of tasks. Copeland also wrote about one employee, Katina Stefanova, who was one of the company’s rising stars. But after failing to fulfill a task, Dalio interrogated Stefanova in a room full of the company’s top brass. The billionaire investor called Stefanova, who was pregnant at the time, “an idiot”, reducing her to tears. The whole episode was recorded on camera and later on played to new candidates. 

Dalio also reportedly had a meltdown over a whiteboard eraser, and sent an entire team in a tizzy. 

A spokesperson for Ray Dalio called the book just another “tabloid book”, authored by someone who applied for a job at the firm but was rejected. The spokesperson said that Copeland, since then, became an investigative reporter who made a career out of writing “distorted stories” about Bridgewater and Dalio. 

Also read: Ray Dalio interrogated pregnant employee in front of top executives till she cried, claims new book