The firm serves institutional clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments, and central banks.

[11] The company's Daily Observations research is reportedly read by leaders of central banks and managers of pension funds worldwide.

At that time, the business consisted exclusively of advising corporate clients and the management of domestic and international currency and interest rate risks.

[15] Bridgewater began publishing a paid subscription research report, the Daily Observations, which inspired McDonald's Corp. and its main supplier to become clients in the early 1980s.

[16] Another client was Banks of Mid-America, whose treasury department director, Bob Prince, later joined Bridgewater Associates as co-CIO.

In 1990, it launched a hedge fund portfolio using monies from Kodak and Loews Corporation[13] and began formally offering its clients currency overlay products.

[27] In 2002, Nelson Information named the company the World's Best Money Manager in recognition of the 16.3% return on its International Fixed Income program.

[30] In 2006, the company's flagship Pure Alpha fund began "returning money" to its clients in order to maintain its investment strategy and enforce its "capacity limit".

The firm began moving all of its clients into alternative strategies (either its All Weather or Pure Alpha Major Markets funds), thereby eliminating the traditional investment approach from its portfolios.

[35] The company's researchers reviewed the public accounts of most of the major financial institutions around the globe and found that estimated future losses due to bad debts totaled $839 billion.

[39] Dalio began using the term "d-process" in February 2009 to describe the deleveraging and deflationary process of the subprime mortgage industry, as distinct from a recession.

[44] Absolute Return + Alpha (AR) ranked it first in its Hedge Fund Report Card[45] and Billion Dollar Club categories.

[46] The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) invested $250 million in a stake in Bridgewater Associates Intermediate Holdings.

[53] In 2020, Bridgewater reported hefty losses due to COVID-19-related market volatility, with the pure Alpha II fund losing 18.6% as of August 2020.

[59] In January 2022, Nir Bar Dea, a retired major and platoon leader in the Israeli Defense Forces, and Mark Bertolini were announced as co-CEOs.

[14][19] A 2023 New York Times investigative report, based on a book by the paper's finance journalist Rob Copeland,[71] raised questions about whether the firm uses a sophisticated investing system.

[75] It includes 30 or 40 simultaneous trading positions in bonds, currencies, stock indexes, and commodities to avoid affecting prices by concentrating funds in a single area.

[80] In April 2009, after Lehman Brothers collapsed, the fund moved into "safe portfolio" mode, which included nominal and inflation-linked bonds and gold instead of equities, emerging market debt, and commodities.

[81] In June 2018, Bridgewater was granted permission to develop and market domestic investment products to qualified investors in China.

It is reportedly read by leaders of central banks and managers of pension funds worldwide and is said to be "one of the most widely forwarded pieces of market analysis" in the industry.

[11] In an effort to consolidate its offices, the company made plans to build a 750,000-square-foot headquarters in Stamford, about 15 miles from Westport, but canceled the project in 2014.

[7][90][91] It is reportedly one of the few hedge fund managers that hire its analysts and employees right out of college and from the annual pool of graduates of elite universities.

The company's administration consisted of three co-CEOs: Greg Jensen; Eileen Murray, former Controller at Morgan Stanley;[94] and David McCormick, the former undersecretary of the Treasury Department.

[36] According to one trade journal, six years after the publication of Principles, the firm's rapid expansion led to the institution of a "bizarre culture of criticism".

[103] In addition to Principles, Bridgewater employees use the "dot collector", a tool that allow them to give real-time assessments of each other's views, contributing to the open environment.

[104] In 2011, New York magazine called Bridgewater the "largest and indisputably weirdest hedge fund" because of its unwavering commitment to "total honesty and accountability" and minute detail in its corporate culture.

[97][106] The company's flat corporate structure aims to remove the barriers associated with traditional asset management firms, and stodginess and risk-aversion are discouraged.

[11] In The New Yorker, John Cassidy wrote, "the word 'cult' clearly has connotations that don't apply to an enterprise staffed by highly paid employees who can quit at any moment".

[36] While Bridgewater's practice of radical transparency has at times been criticized, its executives maintain that open communication helps the firm better evaluate risk and is the key to its success.

[110] In 2018, Wharton Professor Adam Grant published a podcast featuring a Bridgewater manager who was ranked last in performance after a meeting to illustrate how radical transparency works at the firm.