Customer Reviews

The Bond King: Investment Secrets from PIMCO's Bill Gross

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bill Gross it the Peter Lynch of the bond world. The PIMCO money manager has consistently outperformed his benchmarks over the last 20 years. Middleton attempts to provide an bird's eye view of Gross's personal life and uses those perspectives to discuss how he makes money in the bond world. In summary, the answer is total returns, return from the yield on the coupon (think mortgage rate, interest) as well as the pricing on the issue.

The author starts down the path of constructing bond portfolios that span the risk and reward spectrum, but does not provide any perspectives. The book converts to a PIMCO prospectus in the middle of the book and could have been chopped at the editor's desk without losing any of main points and saving the paper in the world.

For those who really want to understand Bill's view on the world, he writes a wonderful thought piece every month that summarizes his views in a very practical and easily readable form. Well worthing reading.

In summary, worth reading if you are a bond neophyte and want to understand how people make money in the bond markets.

Your total return seeking reviewer,
Fred "Govvies" Sanford

Tim Middleton's almost epic tale about Bond King Bill Gross is entertaining, enlightening and, dare I say it, engrossing! At the tail end of a 20-year bull market in bonds, it's worth noting that Gross is one of the few managers with the gumption to have issued a warning that the good old days may be about over. How many fund managers actually warn you NOT to buy their funds? That's honesty. I recommend you read this book to find out what makes this guy so honest, so rich, and so worth listening to.

I've been a Bill Gross fan for a long time, and this book really provides terrific insights into what makes the man tick and what makes his investing style so successful. I've caught glimpses of both those things in a handful of magazine articles over the years, but this book paints the whole picture. I have long believed that bonds should play an important role in any investor's portfolio, but I felt like I was howling into the wind through the late '90s. The stock market collapse was reality's slap in the face for a lot of "equity-heads." Now that investors are coming back to their senses and embracing the virtues of a truly balanced portfolio, this book should be an essential part of their investing library. Middleton does a good job not only of showing us what makes Bill Gross tick, but more importantly showing us what makes his bond investing strategies work so well.

When you think of bond trading, what adjectives come to mind? Dull? Boring? Stagnant? All of the above? You're not alone. Stocks and, to a lesser degree, mutual funds tend to rule the roost as far as excitement is concerned in the world of investing. Your image of the dull bond market may change after reading this biography of the man who created the Pacific Investment Company, Bill Gross.

Bill Gross has become the most respected man in the bond market, probably the most famous bond trader to date. Not only will you get his philosophy on trading and the market, but you'll learn how he arrived where he is today. From a high school entrepreneur, a mechanical engineer, a writer of code for Lotus, a professional blackjack player, and a stint in the Navy -- it all makes for very fascinating reading.

After reading this, I have a new respect for the man and a new appreciation for the bond market. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about the financial markets, as well as insight into the mind of a financial genius. You'll never view the bond market the same way after reading this!

If you really want to understand bill gross, this overly wordy substanceless book is the last place to go. Go to PIMCO's website and read through all of the past investment outlooks he has put out. This book promises something nuanced and wonderful and never delivers. Aside from some interesting biographical information about the man, there is nothing that will improve your mind in this book that you can't get out of a PIMCO prospectus. If you are a serious student of the market, you will be sorely disappointed.

Even after 17 years as a financial journalist, I knew precious little about Bill Gross, one of this country's richest men and greatest investors. Yes, I knew that Gross was the acknowledged king of the bond market, the Warren Buffet of the fixed-income set. But I had little appreciation for the scope or scale of his accomplishments or the methodology behind them. Thanks to this entertaining book from Timothy Middleton, a former colleague of mine at Dow Jones, I now consider my education more complete. "The Bond King" is fun reading, and, for the value-conscious, three books in one: a lively personality profile that benefits from Middleton's behind-the-scenes access to Gross over the course of nine months of research, a primer on the bond market, and a how-to manual for anyone interested in trying to mimic Gross's success. For good measure, the book also includes portraits of three legendary investors who influenced Gross's career: speculators Jessie Livermore and Bernard Baruch, and financier J. Pierpont Morgan. While reading "The Bond King" may not make you an all-star bond investor--for that, you'd need not just Gross's recipe but also his genius--it will make you a better bond investor. And if you just want to know more about a man who will go down as one of the legendary investors of our era, "The Bond King" is a perfect read for the beach this summer.

Gross is an excellent bond trader (and thats the key word, he actively trades, PIMCO trades) no doubt about it, but Middleton makes a read much like Bonners "Financial Reckoning Day" he just keeps repeating his mantra: Total Return.

In total honesty you could summarize this book in the following words: active buying and selling of bonds will give you "total return." What counts as total return is the coupon and the price you make from selling. There are no "secrets" as alleged on the slick paper wrapper and there is very little "Gross." Its all Middleton's fluff and it looks like he would do quite well in a prior era where people were paid by the word.