Earlier this week, Warren Buffett stated that investing in Berkshire Hathaway was his biggest mistake. A few days later it was Bill Gross also admitted his biggest mistakes in a video interview on CNBC.
This is a really fascinating video. Bill Gross talks about the biggest mistakes he ever made in his investment career. Here is a bio of Gross who is arguably the best bond investor ever:
Bill Gross is a founder of PIMCO, managing director and co-CIO in the Newport Beach office. PIMCO manages more than $1 trillion (no typo there) of fixed income securities. He is the author of numerous articles on the bond market, as well as the book Everything You’ve Heard About Investing Is Wrong! , published in and Bill Gross on Investing. He appears frequently in national publications and media. Among the awards he has received, Morningstar named Mr. Gross and his investment team Fixed Income Manager of the Decade for 2000-2009 and Fixed Income Manager of the Year for 1998, 2000, and 2007 (the first three-time recipient of Manager of the Year). In 2000, Mr. Gross received the Bond Market Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1996, he became the first portfolio manager inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society’s hall of fame for his major contributions to the advancement of fixed income analysis and portfolio management. In a survey conducted by Pensions and Investments magazine in 1993, Mr. Gross was recognized by his peers as the most influential authority on the bond market in the U.S. He has 40 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University.
In this video with CNBC anchor Becky Quick Gross discusses several mistakes me made earlier in his career.
In 1974 he passed up on Wal-Mart and Berkshire Hathaway. Shortly later, he lent to a company called Itel, which went bankrupt shortly after. Gross claims that he was lured by the carpet, and a pretty secretary at Itel. He lost five million dollars in the loan.
He says he learnt a lot from reading about J. Pierpont Morgan, and this prevented him from investing in subprime mortgages.
