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Odd Lots

How Bill Gross Built a Bond Empire—Then Lost It All

For a long time, bond investing was considered a sleepy backwater. Then Pimco came along.

Bill Gross — Bill Gross
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

By

Joe Weisenthal and

April 4, 2022, 8:00 AM UTC

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For a long time, bond investing was considered a sleepy backwater. You bought a bond and just clipped coupons as you waited for it to mature. But then Bill Gross discovered that bonds could be traded. He founded Pimco and proceeded to make a lot of money from bond investing, sometimes in controversial ways.