Key facts
- Mark Dinner, a former Bridgewater executive, is launching his Strategic Equities fund.
- The fund will launch as a commingled vehicle in September with a $50 million target.
- The strategy blends fundamental stock-picking with macro techniques, focusing on durable companies.
- It categorizes stocks into four archetypes: current winners, high-cash-flow, beneficiaries of rising rates, and beneficiaries of rising inflation.
- The strategy returned 12% in 2025 and is up 5.2% through June this year.
Mark Dinner, a former Ray Dalio lieutenant who spent over a decade at Bridgewater Associates, is launching his stock-picking strategy, Strategic Equities, as a commingled fund in September. The fund, managed by his firm ICW (Invest to Change the World), aims to capitalize on a global "digital revolution" by blending macro investing with bottom-up stock selection.
Dinner has been running the strategy as a separately managed account for a family office since 2023, and it is set to target $50 million with Morgan Stanley as its lead prime broker. ICW currently manages close to $150 million across various separately managed accounts. According to a tear sheet, the strategy returned 12% in 2025 and has gained 5.2% through June of this year. The investment team includes quants Joe Contuzzi and Nicholas Oleng, who joined from Bridgewater and Wellington, respectively.
The core of Dinner's strategy is to achieve durability across different market and economic cycles. He aims for a majority of returns to come from the portfolio's balance and diversification, rather than trying to predict the next macro regime. To achieve this, Dinner created four company archetypes: current winners, high-cash-flow companies, beneficiaries of rising interest rates, and beneficiaries of rising inflation. He views high-cash-flow companies as a substitute for bonds, performing well when the broader equity market declines.
The long-biased strategy typically holds around 80 positions, comprising 50 to 60 individual stocks and the remainder in stock baskets or broader ETFs. Dinner believes this approach is unique among former Bridgewater employees, who often focus on macro funds, and has received positive feedback from investors.