Bill Gross's Treasurys Call: Another Expert Bites the Dust

Published 03/06/2012, 12:54 AM
Updated 07/09/2023, 06:31 AM

We have discussed ad-nausea the challenges of investment professionals adding value consistently over time via prediction. This post highlights another example of the fallacy of experts.

PIMCO boasts $1.357 Trillion in assets under administration and over 2000 employees in 11 countries. Bill Gross, lead manager of PIMCO's Total Return Fund behemoth, is constantly featured in the media, and the PIMCO team is without a doubt the global leader in bond investing.

Yet the PIMCO Total Return Fund dramatically underperformed a myriad of low cost passive bond ETFs in 2011.

PIMCO_vs_ETFs
In mid-2011 Bill Gross made a bold call; he asserted that Treasury prices had peaked, and sold off the majority of his Treasury holdings, only to see Treasuries have one of their best years ever.

If anyone was going to "see" the massive rally in U.S. Treasury bonds and position themselves for it, wouldn't it have been them? Yet their prognostications of a year ago were of the exact opposite direction.

This reminds us of Danish physicist Neils Bohr famous quote: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."

Latest comments

Loading next article…
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2025 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.