2019: flat
The firm’s flagship Pure Alpha strategy was essentially flat in 2019, with Pure Alpha 18 Percent, the more leveraged version, falling 0.5 percent for the year, according to an investor in the funds. The less leveraged version, Pure Alpha 12 percent, gained 0.5 percent for the year.
2020: -7.6%
Bridgewater Associates’ flagship Pure Alpha fund lost 7.6% in 2020, while the firm’s All Weather fund was up over 10%.
Pure Alpha 12% Strategy fund, which went from posting a 0.29% return in 2019 to suffering a loss of -10.63% in 2020. Furthermore 2020 also wiped out two years of returns on their Pure Alpha 18% Volatility Strategy.
2021: 8%
Performance of Bridgewater’s flagship global macro fund Pure Alpha 18% Vol fund was up 7.95% in 2021 compared with a loss of 12.6% in 2020. The firm’s All-Weather 10% Vol risk-parity strategy returned 11.57% in 2021 and 9.5% in 2020.
2022: 9.4% (6% through Nov)
The Pure Alpha fund tumbled about 13% in the fourth quarter through November, cutting its year-to-date gain to 6%.
Pure Alpha II tumbled in October and November 2022 after having been up 22%. It ended that year up 9.4%.
2023: -7.6%
Bridgewater Associates’s flagship hedge fund lost 7.6% last year, with all of the drop coming in the last two months of 2023, according to people familiar with its performance. The losses for the world’s biggest hedge fund corresponded to the biggest two-month gain in global bonds since at least 1990 and a roughly 14% gain in US shares. The Pure Alpha II fund was up 7.5% through October before dropping about 14% in the following two months.
The firm’s long-only All Weather fund returned 10.6% last year, one of the people said.
