The world’s greatest investors: Bill Gross

published 15 July 2016

16-7-14-Gross-1200 — Bill Gross took a novel approach to investing in bonds

Gross was born in Ohio in 1944. He graduated in psychology from Duke University in North Carolina then used his Blackjack skills to pay his way through business school at the University of California. After a brief naval career, he joined Pacific Mutual Life as a credit analyst. In 1971, he played a key role in the firm starting up a subsidiary, Pacific Investment Management Company (Pimco), where he spent most of his career, before leaving to join Janus Capital in 2014.

What is his strategy?

Did it work?

As a result, Pimco's Total Return fund had just under $300bn in assets at its peak in 2013, making it much larger than any similar fund. Gross's reputation goes before him Janus's share price jumped by 40% on the news that he was joining the fund group.

What were his biggest successes?

What other advice does he have for investors?

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Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri