ADGM Academy Presents A Fireside Chat with Ray Dalio

Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to this fireside chat this morning. Um, I'm especially excited to introduce today's guest, but he's someone that doesn't really need much of an introduction. um from caddying at his local golf club and putting those early earnings into stocks to spending the last 60 years as a global macro investor and building the world's largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. His journey has been truly remarkable and something I learned recently, Rey, his links to the UAE stem back over 30 years. And so he has seen how this wonderful country has grown and developed with Abu Dhabi.

Not just himself, but his family have strong links here as well. He is an investor, a philanthropist, a best-selling author, and a proud grandfather. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ray Dallio. This year, ADGM Academy was proud to offer 300 full scholarships for the Dalio Market Principles online program. Open to all nationalities.

This initiative was about giving back and encouraging participation. It marked a real milestone for the academy and we are grateful to our chairman of ADGM, his excellency Ahmed Jasim Al- Zabi for these scholarships. Ray, let's start with the course itself. What made you design it and how is it involved evolved from its first initiation to where it is today? I'm at a stage in my life where I want to pass along what I've learned to try to help others, right?

Um, and as a family office, I have a family office and I have children and grandchildren and so it's my objective to help in that way and this course is, you know, the way I can do that. And what was the idea of the course itself when you first thought about it that you want to put this to use and how where it where it started from when it did to where it is today?

Well, it it germinated um you know like maybe 35 years ago what I would do every time I would make a decision is I would write down the criteria I would use to make the decision. So I principles I would call these principles. If you do this then this will work. And so over those 35 years then I built that into a course within Bridgewater and then I built it into apps that would be able to answer questions and so on. So it really evolved from 35 years ago in terms of what are those good principles and and how do I apply those principles and how can we have interactions and then when I transitioned Bridgewater you know I started it and uh and ran it pretty much for 50 years.

it's now the 50th year. Um I felt that I should do that and uh since I've been coming to Abu Dhabi for 30 years and or 32 years and also in Singapore um have been having a similar relationship because I was managing money for the institutional funds here uh and there um it was a natural they wanted that course and you wanted that course to be able to teach the population. So we created this online course. You know the course, it allows people to deal with it online and acquire those skills.

Excellent. Looking ahead, how do you see it helping participants today? Not in just adjusting and learning the fundamentals of investing and asset management, but in navigating the world we're living in right now. I think you need to have these principles and you know all family officers or all investors or all parties with means need to know how to deal with this changing world order and that changing world order is not just um economics and markets. It's politics and geopolitics.

Um it's the reason many people here are here today or in the in the region. you know, if you don't understand these things, um, you're you can be in trouble.

It's interesting because we've had s we've had over 300 people partake in the cohort and the the feedback that we get is they want more. They're hungry for more. They would love to go on a on a level two type of program as well. So, we've seen that interaction coming from the cohorts that have that have participated,

which we will do.

We look forward to it. Um, another big question, and I know this is maybe something that's very, very close to your heart. Um, what do you think are the most common mistakes investors and policy makers make when they're thinking about markets and economies, not just here within the Middle East, but also worldwide as well.

Um, they don't know how to deal with what they don't know. The markets are a zero- sum game and they think that they can enter this game of of how do you structure a portfolio and so on and have an opinion or they go to people who may not really add value in that zero sum game. You know, it's only a small percentage of the participants who really add value in that game

and there are many. And so knowing how to deal with what you don't know whether it's in the portfolio structuring or what you should have as your own responsibilities I think is of paramount importance. I would say most importantly how do you structure a portfolio um that meet your objectives? Do you even know your objectives? For example, is it in real returns or is it in nominal returns and in what currency?

All of those things. What's a storehold of wealth? How do you create a portfolio that's well enough structured so that no matter what happens, it's okay? These are I think people are too opinionated and too ignorant to be that opinionated. It's interesting because you maybe do you think you get a different perception from this region to where you do outside maybe in the west in the east like you said you've worked within Singapore and the markets there is there a different perception that you

I would say it's more a common perception that people have accumulated wealth

and they focusing on their business which they know very well and from knowing their business then they should know that it's not easy to compete.

Sure.

Okay. And so it's a common issue or the family office. This is a family office meeting. Um how do you go from one generation to another? Well there.

So there are even questions beyond the investment questions. How do you transition wealth and power? Not to enable and not to weaken. Maybe you know there's a challenge of having too much money as well as having too little money. How do you handle those things?

as well. I think it's common all around. It's a human nature. It's a uh evolutionary process in our life cycles.

Um I'm very conscious of time, but we also shared a set of questions and we reached out to the cohorts that have attended the program and we got back several hundred questions. Literally, it just didn't stop. It didn't stop. The questions kept coming. Um but one of the ones that kept reoccurring that we saw was from a number of the participants primarily on the first cohort and they asked you are often speaking about the changing world order.

I know that's the book that you've written as well as economics power shifts globally. How should leaders here in the Middle East be thinking about the next decade compared to the last? What is what what are the next steps should they be thinking about primarily here within this region?

There are five major forces that have through history have created big cycles and those cycles last about a lifetime. There is a monetary order and the monetary orders break down having to do with debt and money. There is a political order and that political order has to do with um differences in wealth that cause fights and differences in values that cause fights. So we're seeing that within countries. Uh third, there's a changing geopolitical order, the relative power of one country versus another country.

Um then acts of nature and um have killed more people and toppled more orders and then technologies come along. And so this world order is now approaching um a much more dangerous situation um having to do with the fact that for example there's too much debt, government debt and there's not enough money. And so as a result you see in most countries the UK, US, uh France and so on you see um a shortage of money and then increased demands for example for military spending for other forms and so um I would say that in summarizing this when I'm looking at those those five forces are creating um changes important changes that have that most of the people here I think probably have seen encountered and maybe even helped to bring them to the UAE. Um and then I would say there are three things that a country needs to do in order to be a successful country. So um this will get back to the advice for the leaders but I want to also say it's the same as the places these people choose.

The um the three things are um go to a country or be to be a successful country, you need to educate your children well. Not only in in order to be capable of earning money and being productive, but also in civility and you need to come out to a society that is civil, that has um order and that people work well to be productive. And then you have to have those places stay out of a war or a great conflict that's disruptive like a internal conflict that's so disruptive or an external war and if those places can do that. Now I have been here for 32 years in other words from the first beginning and I was lucky enough to uh be here and see the evolution with Shik Zed when he took and I think not only um he as both the father of the country and the father of the leaders I've gotten to know the leaders and remarkable in terms of okay how do you make a a peaceful safe um prosperous place. So yeah, my uh I have a son and um daughter-in-law and um grandchildren who live here um and they go to the schools and you look at the quality of the schools, the quality of the health care, the quality of these things, they speak for themselves.

And so I think that these are the things that um the leaders know matter most. I think I think it's quite remarkable. Money is a is part of it but anybody who has money knows that money uh it it is the vision and the ability to build out that vision that matters most. You can have a lot of money. There are a lot with have a lot of money who can't build this thing.

And so having watched it, I would say that these are the things that the leaders I think it's in their DNA to create that kind of uh environment. And I think it's um you know important that we all appreciate that this is basically um this is uh almost a this is a utopia in a troubled world, you know. Uh so it's a it's a great place to be and uh I think that these are the things that are important.

I think we're all very fortunate that we are in a position where we can reside and live in this wonderful country and I think everybody will agree that lives here and has visited here the safety that it portrays the leadership with its visionary values we are all very very grateful of. Um because you you can easily come here and and if you're if you don't know, you might miss that. You might see, okay, it's a wonderful place. Look how modern it is. Um and and this and the other thing, but you don't know where that comes from.

Okay. What are the essential elements and how much are that is that in the DNA?

And you've seen it like you've seen it from from over the last 32 years that you've you've been here.

One of the things that you talked also about is about bringing the cohorts together and doing a session next year with them by inviting them and speaking to them directly. I think that will be something that we would welcome the opportunity.

Yeah. And what I'm doing with the questions which is uh interesting. I'm taking those questions and I'm uh building a digital twin. I have a digital twin working because I've had so many questions and so many principles accumulated over so over decades so that it can interact. My aspiration is that those thousands would be able to interact directly and get the same answers that I would give them.

So we would have the capacity to do that. But yes, I would like to um bring the cohorts here and and do my to my best of my ability uh help them and yeah,

inshallah inshallah. Ray, I wish we had more time to carry on this discussion and learn a lot more from you, but on behalf of ADJM Academy, it's been wonderful working with you and your team this year. We look forward to further collaboration in 2026 and beyond.

I do as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, Ray Dalio.