Need to Know: Quite a pivot: Ray Dalio has just reversed his long-held stance on this key asset class.

For years, Ray Dalio has made his disdain for cash abundantly clear.

The founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund, told everyone who would listen that cash was trash, a point he repeated to the MarketWatch Best New Ideas In Money festival just two weeks ago. Dalio said cash was still a trash investment, though perhaps he showed signs of tweaking his long-held worldview, as he said the true utility of cash depends on how it compares to others.

Now, hes changed his mind. I no longer think cash is trash, said Dalio, in a late Monday tweet. At existing interest rates and with the Fed shrinking the balance sheet, it is now about neutralneither a very good or very bad deal. In other words, the short-term interest rate is now about right.

This is a view that investment bank Morgan Stanley has been espousing for some time. At virtually no risk, the 6-month Treasury bill TMUBMUSD06M, 3.815% on Tuesday morning yielded just under 4%. That compares to the 1.74% dividend yield on the S&P 500 SPX, +2.59%, the 3.57% yield on the 10-year Treasury TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.581% and the 2% yield on the iShares Core U.S. aggregate bond ETF AGG, +0.81%.