Balanced Asset Allocation: How to Profit in Any Economic Climate

Acknowledgments

I wrote this book with the intention of sharing core investment concepts that I thought might be informative for the majority of investors. My target audience was anyone interested in a thoughtful analysis of asset allocation. This applies to the entire spectrum, from novice to expert. Consequently, an indispensable part of the process was to seek honest feedback from a wide range of people.

The first thank-you goes to my friends at Bridgewater, the organization that pioneered many of the core concepts presented in this book. Ray Dalio, Seth Birnbaum, David Gordon, and Parag Shah were invaluable supporters. I am grateful to each of them for introducing me to these ideas and providing essential feedback. This group of special individuals ultimately inspired me to accept the challenge of writing this book and publicly sharing these important concepts.

I am grateful to Bill Lee, a true expert in the balanced portfolio concepts, for writing the foreword and taking the time to discuss these ideas with me. We share a similar passion for investing, and I am so fortunate to have met him through this process.

Charles de Vaulx, one of the most successful investors in the world, has expressed particular interest in these topics. He and I have spent countless hours debating the merits and potential flaws of the approach. He offers a unique assessment because of his financial expertise, and perhaps even more importantly, his intellectually curious and naturally skeptical nature. ...