Happy Tuesday, GoldBuzzers!

Legendary investor Ray Dalio’s family office has 87 percent of its holdings in gold, according to its latest SEC filing.

That’s an incredible number, and I’ll be digging into it in today’s Take Action Tuesday.

Ok. Let’s get into it. ⬇️

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Gold slipped about half a percent on Monday to finish just above $4,140, pressed lower by a firmer US dollar and rising Treasury yields ahead of next week’s Fed meeting. Silver went its own way, holding modest gains around $57 and clawing back a little of October’s steep pullback.

Hot September inflation readings have kept rate worries simmering, though a pullback in oil prices took some of the edge off during the session. The Fed meets on October 27-28 and markets overwhelmingly expect a hold, with Chair Kevin Warsh giving nothing away at last week’s IMF gathering in Bangkok - traders now put the odds of a December hike at roughly four in five.

Higher rates raise the cost of holding metal that pays no interest, which is why every Fed headline matters to gold right now, and why the next three weeks of inflation data will do a lot of the steering.

At the end of June, Ray Dalio’s family office held about 87 percent of its reported US investments in gold. It’s a very striking number from one of the world’s best-known investors, and today I’m taking a closer look at those numbers, to find out what they really mean.

Investment managers with more than $100 million in US-listed securities have to file a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, called a Form 13F. Dalio’s family office files as Marino Management LLC, and its latest report lists eleven positions worth about $480 million.

SPDR Gold Shares, known as GLD, makes up $408 million of that, or 84.9 percent. It’s the largest gold exchange-traded fund, which is a fund that trades like a stock and holds physical gold in a vault. A second gold fund adds 2.4 percent, and most of the rest sits in government bond funds.

The gold stayed put while the price moved

Between March and June, the holdings fell in value from $547 million to $480 million, a drop of about 12 percent, while gold fell about 14 percent. The share counts in all eleven positions were identical at both dates, so the drop came from prices rather than selling.

What the filing can’t see

A 13F only covers certain US-listed shares and funds. Private investments, property and physical gold in a vault don’t appear in it, and neither does money invested with other managers, including Dalio’s significant investments in Bridgewater’s funds.

Recent Bloomberg estimates put his wealth at $16 billion to $20 billion, so this filing covers two to three percent of it. That makes the $419 million in gold funds a floor rather than a total. His other assets could hold much more gold or less, and the filing can’t tell us which.

Why the 87 percent still matters

Dalio said in late 2025 that he’d taken back direct control of his family office’s investments. This is the one portfolio we can see that he actually runs himself, and he’s kept almost all of it in gold through a 14 percent fall in the price.

His public advice is more moderate. In October 2025 he suggested about 15 percent in gold for most portfolios, because gold tends to hold up when stocks and bonds fall. He added that he’d personally lean further toward gold because he doesn’t like bonds or other debt. The simplified All Weather portfolio he shared with Tony Robbins in 2014 held 7.5 percent. So 15 percent is his starting point for a typical investor, and the 87 percent applies to this one account.

A gold fund isn’t quite the same as gold

I’d add one caveat of my own. GLD shareholders own shares in a trust, and the trust owns gold held in a London bank vault. Several firms stand between you and the metal, and ordinary shareholders can’t swap their shares for bars. Only a handful of large firms can, in blocks worth tens of millions of dollars.

GLD is about as solid as gold funds get. Its bars are specifically identified and can’t be lent out. In my view it’s still counterparty risk, though, because your claim on the gold depends on other institutions keeping their promises. Dalio himself has described gold as the one asset you can hold without relying on someone else to pay you back. A fund brings some of that reliance back in. The filing can’t show whether he also owns physical metal.

What to do with this

First, when the next “billionaire goes all-in” headline appears, ask what share of that person’s wealth the filing actually covers. Every 13F is free to read on the SEC’s EDGAR database.

Second, add up your own gold across every account, including any physical metal, and look at how you hold it. Dalio’s 15 percent is a useful reference point, but the right figure for you depends on your own circumstances and for many of us, it will be higher.

The big picture

The 87 percent is real, but it covers one account worth about $480 million, a small slice of a fortune of $16 billion or more.

What’s really significant though, is that this is the one account Dalio runs himself, and he’s kept it almost entirely in gold through a sharp fall in the price. It fits the case he’s made publicly for years, that high government debt and the risk of currencies losing value make gold essential to own.

For anyone who already owns gold, that’s a strong vote of confidence from one of the most closely followed investors alive. The only real question it raises is one many readers settled long ago, which is whether to own gold through a fund or hold the metal itself.

That’s all for this Tuesday, folks. I’ll see you on Thursday.

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Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com