16 brilliant quotes from Bill Gross, the legendary 'Bond King' who retired earlier this year

Steven John

Apr 19, 2019, 17:24 IST

16 brilliant quotes from Bill Gross, the legendary 'Bond King' who retired earlier this year

REUTERS/Jason Reed

William Gross, Manager of the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) participates in the Obama administration's Conference on the Future of Housing Finance in the Cash Room of the Treasury Building in Washington, August 17, 2010.

Bill Gross, the world's most famous bond investor, has a net worth calculated at around $1.5 billion, and would have easily a billion dollars more if not for a recent contentious divorce.
For many years, Gross oversaw Pacific Investment Management Company's Total Return Fund, the largest bond fund on the planet.
We compiled 16 of Gross' most memorable quotes over the years.
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Stories follow Bill Gross like rats to the Pied Piper. From the lurid details leaked about his 2018 divorce to record-setting sales of stamp collections to the ugly end to his time at Pacific Investment Management Company, his life has been a fascinating story to follow.

Before Gross was hailed as the "Bond King" and was managing PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the single biggest such fund in the world, he earned a degree in psychology from Duke University, saw combat multiple times in Vietnam, got an MBA from UCLA, and earned a living playing blackjack in Las Vegas.

Gross retired earlier this year at age 74 after his four-year tenure running a fund at Janus Henderson didn't live up to expectations.

While he may no longer be active in the business, Gross is still outspoken and highly visible, and has lots of memorable quotations from years past.

Here are 16 of the most brilliant quotes from Bill Gross:

'People have different impressions of themselves, and where reality lies is somewhere in between'

'My early blackjack career taught me several things. The first is that if you apply yourself with a lot of hard work and mathematical prowess you can beat the system.'

'Finding the best person or the best organization to invest your money is one of the most important financial decisions you'll ever make'

'Human nature means that institutions at some point lose their sense of mission'

'If companies don't know that they can run out of money, they won't be thinking of ways not to run out of money'

'You know those adages about smelling the roses and chasing butterflies? The markets are my butterflies and my roses'

'It seems, perhaps, that the longer and longer you keep at it in this business, the more and more time you have to expose your Achilles heel'

'I would admit I'm an introvert. I don't know why introverts have to apologize'

'Do you really like a particular stock? Put 10% or so of your portfolio on it; make the idea count. Good ideas should not be diversified away into meaningless oblivion'

'We are witnessing the death of abundance and the borning of austerity, for what may be a long, long time.'

'The market can move for irrational reasons, and you have to be prepared for that'

'I'm an Asperger, and Aspergers can compartmentalize. They can operate in different universes without the other universes affecting them as much.'

'Stocks historically return more than almost all other alternative investments, but only when priced right when the race begins'

'Bond investors are the vampires of the investment world. They love decay, recession — anything that leads to low inflation and the protection of the real value of their loans'

'I am obsessed with delivering value to investors and winning the game from a personal standpoint'

'When you're underperforming the index, you go home at night and cry in your beer. It's not fun, but who said this business should be fun. We're too well paid to hang our heads and say boo-hoo'