Hedge fund king Dalio tells how it all works on YouTube

TAKE a look at the lessons in Dalio 101. Ray Dalio, the 64-year-old founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world with some US$150 billion under management, has quietly begun teaching his investment secrets on YouTube.

Mr Dalio, who is said to be worth some US$13 billion, was one of the few investors to see the financial crisis of 2008 developing, and perhaps just as important, the rebound. He's made his money by predicting big macroeconomic cycles. His economic theories, up until now, have been known only to a small group of investors and those willing to pay his firm 2 per cent management fees and 20 per cent of the investment profits.

Mr Dalio's plain-spoken 30-minute video is an oddly entertaining animated cartoon filled with provocative theories about the way the economy runs. He dispenses with the way economists have long taught economics in school, and instead explains the economy as if it were a "machine" that he believes is much easier to understand and predict.