Bill Gross stands atop a mountain in the investment industry that makes him the most heavily quoted and least-questioned source of information about the bonds, interest rates and even the economy in general. There are good reasons his words are viewed as gospel. The 67-year-old founded Pacific Investment Management Company of Newport Beach, Calif. in 1971, and he now oversees nearly $1 trillion of assets including management of about $250 billion in the Total Return Fund. His performance has been consistently good because he knows what he’s doing. But such heavy reliance on a single source of information seems questionable for financial advisors. RIABiz has been looking around for someone with the knowledge of bonds and of Bill Gross himself to serve as a reality check on the river of opinions that flows from him. Read More…
Seasonality is a familiar concept when it comes to retail sales. December is always the biggest month, with sales about 20 percent higher than the average month. Its seasonal factor is therefore 1.20; to get the seasonally adjusted figure, divide the raw numbers by 1.20. Read more…
When everyone knows something is a fact, I am immediately suspicious. Pundits — and respectable advisors, seers, prognosticators, economists and other ‘experts’ — are all speaking matter-of-factly about the bond bubble. A competitor of ours had four articles in its print edition this week mentioning the bond bubble. I looked around for a differing perspective from someone intellectually equal to the task and Brent Burns, thankfully, stepped into the breach. Read More…
A bond trader friend of mine is fond of saying: Buy bonds, wear diamonds. This may be true but it presumes that you buy them intelligently [so you’ll still be wearing a shirt]. Surprisingly little is written on bond investments relative to the position that this asset class holds in people’s portfolios. The author’s of this article, Stephen Huxley and Brent Burns, offer insight on the topic and will also elaborate on the topic in an upcoming webinar. Read More…
Bill Gross stands atop a mountain in the investment industry that makes him the most heavily quoted and least-questioned source of information about the bonds, interest rates and even the economy in general. There are good reasons his words are viewed as gospel. The 67-year-old founded Pacific Investment Management Company of Newport Beach, Calif. in 1971, and he now oversees nearly $1 trillion of assets including management of about $250 billion in the Total Return Fund. His performance has been consistently good because he knows what he’s doing. But such heavy reliance on a single source of information seems questionable for financial advisors. RIABiz has been looking around for someone with the knowledge of bonds and of Bill Gross himself to serve as a reality check on the river of opinions that flows from him. Read More…