Investors are shifting too much into stocks, investment chief of world's largest hedge fund says
- Greg Jensen, Bridgewater Associates co-CIO, told CNBC on Tuesday he's worried that investors are shifting too much of their portfolios into stocks.
- He said the US fiscal and monetary policy will likely lead to reflation, and investors will have to balance their portfolios with asset classes that can perform in this environment.
- He's worried that investors are shifting too much into stocks and not shifting into asset classes that will provide protection if stocks do poorly.
The co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, told CNBC on Tuesday that he's worried investors are shifting too much of their portfolios into stocks in a market with high valuations and a risk of stagflation.
Greg Jensen explained that fiscal and monetary policy "one way or the other" will "likely lead to reflation of some type." The most important thing investors can do is create a balance in their portfolios that is prepared if reflationary policies prove to lead to "stagflation," or when the inflation rate is high but economic growth slows, Jensen said.
This balance means a portfolio with more than just stocks. "The mistake, and the thing we worry about, is everybody shifting that into equities, and taking more and more equity risk, into a dangerous world with high valuations, and not shifting enough into what will do well if equities do poorly," Jensen said.
The investor said there is $25 trillion stranded in asset classes that can't perform their role in a portfolio. He thinks the shift of this money will be the "the big driver of markets going forward," but it shouldn't just be into stocks.
Jensen said investors should shift into gold and inflation-indexed bonds, and other assets that will perform well with the new monetary and fiscal policy in the US.