While hedge fund peers rarely lose money, Bridgewater's flagship fund has surged 11.3% this year
Media reports citing sources familiar with Bridgewater's performance revealed that Bridgewater's Pure Alpha II fund invests in stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities, with the fund's gains accelerating further in the first half of March. In contrast, U.S. President Trump's trade policies triggered significant market volatility, compounded by ongoing inflationary pressures in the U.S., leading to a fierce sell-off in U.S. stocks, with major indices recording losses for the year, while other macro funds also faced losses
Bridgewater's flagship hedge fund Pure Alpha II has accumulated a growth of 11.3% from 2025 to last week. In contrast, the U.S. stock market experienced a severe sell-off due to significant fluctuations triggered by President Trump's trade policies, coupled with ongoing inflationary pressures domestically, resulting in losses across the board for the U.S. stock market, while other macro funds also faced losses.
Media reports citing sources familiar with Bridgewater's performance revealed that the Pure Alpha II fund invests in equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities, with its gains accelerating further in the first half of March. During the same period, the S&P 500 index fell by 5.3%, and all G7 currencies strengthened against the U.S. dollar.
Currently, several other prominent hedge funds are also facing losses:
Brevan Howard Asset Management's $11.7 billion Master fund fell by 1% in the first week of March, bringing its year-to-date decline to 5.4%.
The Oculus fund under DE Shaw & Co., which primarily makes macro bets, had dropped by 4.4% as of March 7.
Additionally, other major hedge funds such as Citadel, Point72, and Millennium experienced rare widespread losses in February, with highly leveraged "multi-strategy giants" aggressively liquidating positions amid the downturn.
Last year, Bridgewater's main macro fund achieved a return of 11.3%, marking its best performance since 2018. However, this growth still lagged behind that of other large macro fund peers.
Since being appointed as Bridgewater's sole CEO in 2023, Nir Bar Dea has taken measures to enhance the company's return rates, including limiting the size of the flagship fund and focusing more on the field of artificial intelligence.
Earlier this month, Nir Bar Dea revealed that a fund launched by the company last year, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for decision-making, has performed comparably to the company's human-managed strategies. Bridgewater established this $2 billion fund last year, and since its inception, it has generated unique alpha unrelated to human management. However, he did not disclose the specific return rate of the fund to date