(Reuters) – Bridgewater Associates LP, a hedge fund founded by billionaire Ray Dalio, has bet more than $1 billion that stock markets around the world will fall by March, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The bet, assembled over a span of months and executed by a handful of Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (and Morgan Stanley , would pay off for the world’s biggest hedge fund if either the S&P 500 .SPX or the Euro Stoxx 50 .STOXX50E — or both — declines, the report said. The bet is made up of put options, contracts that give investors the right to sell stocks at a specific price by a certain date. The options expire in March and currently represent one of the largest bearish bets against the market, the report added. Bridgewater Associates was not immediately available for comment.