Bridgewater Associates is the world’s largest hedge fund and staffs approximately 1,500 people. Over the course of its existence as a hedge fund, it’s returned in the mid-to-upper teens on an annualized basis. Bridgewater is a “global macro” fund and invests in much more than US equities and is not systematically biased toward being long the market. Accordingly, what Bridgewater’s 13-F report isn’t especially helpful regarding what kind of portfolio(s) the firm creates, as only long-equity positions are disclosed, with no mentions of shorts, derivatives, or other types of securities. The firm builds a mutual-fund like product as one of its portfolios that is designed to give steady returns over time. For this purpose it uses low-cost ETFs, which accounts for the fact that these instruments are its top equity holdings by percentage. 72.2% of its entire equity portfolio is wrapped up in just three ETFs (VWO, EEM, and SPY) – with emerging markets exposure at over half the entire long-equity allocation. This is unusual for a hedge fund with an AUM north of $160 billion, but can make sense in the context of the broad-level diversification exposure that is at the core of its strategy. Individual equity holdings remain slanted toward contrarian picks in brick-and-mortar retail and energy, as they have in previous quarters. Value is strongly prioritized over growth and accounts for the fund’s YTD underperformance. The firm's top 200 holdings can be found below: (click to enlarge)