Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates LP, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, increased its exposure to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM) during the third quarter while reducing its allocation to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY).
Bridgewater added 4.5 million shares of EEM during the third quarter while paring its SPY stake by 1.84 million shares, reports Ken Kohn for Bloomberg. SPY is the world’s largest ETF while EEM is the second-largest emerging markets ETF by assets.
The largest emerging markets ETFs by assets, the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO), was Bridgewater’s largest equity position at the end of September. Bridgewater owned 110.8 million shares of VWO at the end of the third quarter.
EEM and VWO differ in that the former features exposure to South Korea while the latter does not. EEM tracks an MSCI index while VWO tracks a FTSE index. MSCI classifies South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy as an emerging market while FTSE does not.
In addition to VWO, SPY and EEM, theiShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: LQD) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) are the other ETF’s that were found among Bridgewater’s top holdings at the end of the third quarter.