“It’s Sad” – Jeff Gundlach Laments Former Bond King’s Bellicose Rant

We warned yesterday that Jeff Gundlach wouldn’t take Bill Gross’ bitching – about who the real ‘Bond King’ is – lying down.

But he played his cards well – reflecting of tone of sadness for the grumpy old man clinging to his past successes.

Gross criticized Gundlach yesterday on a Bloomberg podcast, saying he wasn’t anywhere near being crowned a “bond king.”

Gundlach responded calmly to questions about the remarks as part of a panel at the Future Proof conference for the wealth management industry in Huntington Beach, California:

“It’s sad for somebody that’s been out of the business for 10 years and is still trying to exorcise the demons,” adding, in a wonderfully patronizing manner:

“But I hope he’s doing fine.”

Gross had mocked Gundlach’s firm having ‘only $55 billion AUM’ – not enough to be a ‘king’. Gundlach remarked that: “I never wanted that title, I never embraced it, I really don’t know what it means.”

“We’re doing great, our five-year numbers are great, things are good. And we manage a lot more than $55 billion,” he added, noting that he doesn’t want to manage more money than he already does, citing roughly $100 billion assets under management for his firm.

He also pointed out that he stopped marketing his largest fund more than a decade ago.

“This idea that your AUM defines you, it’s just weird. I’ve capped many of my strategies that I could have raised twice, three times as much money but I didn’t think there’d be fun, I didn’t think I’d be happier doing that,” Gundlach said.

“I actually thought it would be more difficult. Because along with that is more clients, more hassles and probably incrementally less rewarding because you’re less successful in terms of results.”

The DoubleLine CEO took the high-road with his concluding remarks:

“I hope he retires and feels better about himself,” Gundlach said of Gross.

How long before Gross buys a house near Gundlach and starts playing his music at max volume?