This is hedging against market fall.
They have $149 Billions investment in various companies. If there is a stock drop say 10% or more, their net worth comes down to $134 Billions. If we are big investors of bridge-water , we do not like see our net worth down in Ray Dalio funds and pay commission to them, we will start removing the money.
To avoid draw down in case of stock drop, Bridge-water places put bets on their holdings in case of possible downtrends with 1B.
If market does not fall, they lose 1B, if it falls, they holdings go down, but puts value increase hedging the price drop. At bottom (if it falls), they can sell puts and book profits, and then market eventually comes back to normal.
If the sell investments buy later, it results big taxes, but hedging is the way to tackle market fall.
Take the case of hanera he can not sell his AAPL incase he expects AAPL to come to $200, but he can buy puts $200 with 3 months strike time.
In essence, if WSJ is true, bridge-water expects a likely downfall and tries to protect their investment using hedge puts !
There are various ways to hedge against market fall and many hedgefunds does this !