**Bridgewater and State Street Global Advisors Introduce 'All Weather' ETF**

Bridgewater Associates, the famed hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio, is entering the exchange-traded fund (ETF) market with its renowned All Weather strategy. State Street Global Advisors has announced plans to launch the SPDR Bridgewater All Weather ETF, according to a regulatory filing made public on Tuesday. This new fund will be sub-advised by Bridgewater, which will provide a daily model portfolio tailored specifically for this investment product.

Initially launched in 1996 to manage Dalio's trust assets, the All Weather strategy is a risk-parity approach that distributes investments across various asset classes based on their respective volatility. The strategy emphasizes diversification to mitigate risks typically associated with single-asset investments like stocks, by balancing holdings in bonds, commodities, and leveraging safer assets. The primary aim is to sustain performance through different phases of the business cycle.

“We believe a diversified asset allocation is a great step in preparing for the future, and we are excited to broaden access to our approach with an innovative organization like State Street Global Advisors,” said Karen Karniol-Tambour, Bridgewater's co-chief investment officer, in a press release. The announcement marks a strategic relationship aimed at expanding alternative asset investments.

Despite the recent decline in investor interest in diversified strategies, particularly as they have underperformed against the S&P 500 Index, this new ETF seeks to rejuvenate interest by offering investors a way to leverage Bridgewater's expertise. Performance metrics show that an S&P risk-parity index targeting 12% volatility has risen by 3% this year, as opposed to 11% for a Bloomberg index favoring a 60%-40% stocks and bonds mix. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has surged by approximately 24%.

The specifics regarding the fund’s fees and ticker symbols have not yet been disclosed. The model portfolio for this ETF will be crafted by Bridgewater's Karen Karniol-Tambour and Christopher Ward, while day-to-day fund management will be overseen by a team led by James Kramer of State Street Global Advisors. According to Todd Sohn, an ETF strategist at Strategas, the approach of using a model delivery instead of direct management by Bridgewater, while not optimal for everyone, still represents substantial accessibility to Bridgewater’s investment strategies.

State Street Global Advisors is the third-largest ETF issuer globally, managing around $1.4 trillion, as reported by Bloomberg. The firm's collaboration with Bridgewater is their latest venture, following a filing in September to partner with Apollo Global Management on a private credit ETF.