Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Ray Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles. In THE FUND: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend (St. Martin’s Press / On-sale: November 7, 2023), award-winning New York Times journalist Rob Copeland punctures this carefully-constructed narrative of the benevolent business titan, exposing his much-promoted “principles” as a phenomenal illusion and one of the great feats of hubris in modern memory. These so-called principles endowed upon Dalio the authority to opine on life’s great meanings, which in turn helped transform him into a self-help guru for millions, as money continued to flow into his hedge fund.
THE FUND is a page-turning, stranger-than-fiction journey into a rarefied world of wealth and power – and a dive into a toxic culture of paranoia and backstabbing, often protected by lifetime contracts. It offers an unflinching look at the pain so often caused by the “radical transparency” Dalio has described as a core tenet of his recipe for business success and a meaningful life. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with those inside and around the firm, Copeland takes readers into the room as former FBI director Jim Comey kisses Dalio's ring, recent Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick drinks the Kool-Aid, and a rotating cast of memorable characters grapple with their personal psychological and moral limits—all under the watchful eye of their charismatic leader. This eye-opening exposé is a cautionary tale for anyone convinced that the ability to make lots of money has anything at all to do with unlocking the principles of human nature.
ROB COPELAND is a finance reporter for the New York Times. He was previously the longtime hedge-fund beat reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and has also covered Silicon Valley and the hidden worlds of the wealthy and powerful. His front-page investigations into Bridgewater Associates won a New York Press Club award; he was also awarded an honorable mention twice by the Society of American Business Writers (SABEW) and was named a News Media Alliance "Rising Star" (formerly Top 30 Under 30). He has appeared on ABC’s "Good Morning America," NPR and other major news networks.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE FUND
“At last, the era of the billionaire philosopher-king has a defining book. The Fund is a taut, nonfiction thriller." —Bryan Burrough, author of Barbarians at the Gate
“A classic American story about the most famous man on Wall Street—or the person he seems to be. The Fund manages to both shock and entertain at the same time.” —Philipp Meyer, bestselling author of American Rust and The Son
"The most explosive, mind-blowing business book I've ever read—and the most fun, too." —Bradley Hope, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Billion Dollar Whale and Pulitzer Prize finalist
