Gross’s Mistake on Fed Taper Echoes Across Pimco Funds

Bill Gross, the money manager known as “The Bond King,” misjudged the timing and impact of the Federal Reserve’s plan to scale back its asset purchases in 2013, spurring the Pimco Total Return Fund’s biggest decline in almost two decades.

The billionaire’s mistake was echoed by the largest funds at Pacific Investment Management Co., including non-traditional bond offerings designed to shield investors from interest-rate moves. Pimco mutual funds with more than $10 billion in assets on average trailed about two-thirds of peers in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Only two of the 11 largest funds from the firm beat more than half of their rivals last year.