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Dalio Sees `Significant' Bond Market Risk, Firm Is Long Equities

Dalio Sees `Significant' Bond Market Risk, Firm Is Long Equities

Dalio Sees `Significant' Bond Market Risk, Firm Is Long Equities
Raymond ‘Ray’ Dalio, billionaire and founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, pauses during a session on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. (Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio said that he sees a “significant amount of risk in the bond market” as the U.S. moves toward a bigger deficit and the Federal Reserve unwinds its balance sheet.

“Tightenings become progressively more concerning because as you move along they’re more and more difficult to get perfect,” Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “As we’re progressing, we’re entering a period of greater risk in the nature of the market.”

Dalio added that Bridgewater has been long equities, but didn’t provide more details on how the world’s biggest hedge fund is trading the market. He said he doesn’t think the Fed can continue the pace at which it has begun to unwind its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Dalio also said he expects the U.S. budget deficit to increase to 1.5 percent of GDP, growing the supply of debt at the same time the central bank is offloading bonds.

“I think they’ll be cautious in this but when you’re caught in this part of the cycle it’s very delicate,” he said.

--With assistance from Matthew Boesler and Alexis Leondis

To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella, Heather Perlberg

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.