PIMCO’s Gross Gives Indexes The Finger

Investors can end suffering low yields on bonds by getting out of index funds and dollar-dominated assets, according to Bill Gross, managing director of PIMCO.

Investors can end suffering low yields on bonds by getting out of index funds and dollar-dominated assets, according to Bill Gross, managing director of PIMCO. Acknowledging that such a move can cause anxiety to investors, the bond director said in his latest investment outlook, that in a global bond market “devoid of historic risk premium...avoiding the tyranny of an index can in effect produce a higher return with less risk.”

Gross says bond yields have been hurt by competition from central banks and hedge funds. “Successful money management has always depended on riding the wave of the crowd until it crashes to the ocean floor, he writes, adding that if an investor is being paid little to await his eventual demise, then it seems he should rethink the proposition.”