By Jennifer Ablan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Gross, manager of the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund
"Making money with money is becoming more difficult because yields are low, P/Es are high and investment/productivity is declining," Gross wrote on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR).
Gross, known as the "Bond King" for his decades-long run of successful returns, shocked fixed-income markets last year when he quit Pimco, the firm he co-founded and had built into a $2 trillion (1 trillion pound) powerhouse, in September for Janus.
But his string of bold calls at Janus, including his "short of a lifetime" trade against German Bunds, has not translated into profitable trades.
The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund has underperformed 69 percent of its peer category so far this year and has had low cash inflows. In May, the fund posted net outflows of $11.7 million and had assets under management of $1.5 billion at the end of the month, according to Morningstar.
"My famous (infamous?) 'Short of a lifetime' trade on the German Bund market was well timed but not necessarily well executed," Gross wrote in his June investment outlook report to clients. He did not elaborate on the execution of the transaction.
If that weren't enough, Gross recommended in June shorting the China Shenzhen Composite Index before its huge slump, saying on Twitter, "Some investors know a bubble when they see one but have new Chinese investors ever heard of a pyramid scheme or Mr. Ponzi? Doubtful."
Gross told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that he never executed his own China trade. "I was trying to stick to my knitting, and China wasn't really my knitting," he said.