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The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost it All
From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever.
Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.
The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.
To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.
Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.
The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.
To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
December 6, 2022
Well written but I am not really into finance books and at times the tone seemed to not account for how corrupt the subject actually is.
March 28, 2022
Entertaining to a point, and educational to a point. I am not 100% convinced that she really understands bond math. More importantly, the are elements of this book that sound like an expose. I could have used less hyperbole and more analysis. But an easy read, and worth the time, if you have it to spare.
May 2, 2022
It’s probably no surprise that I heard about this book because it’s by an NPR reporter and Planet Money and The Indicator are two of the podcasts that I listen to regularly. So when Planet Money did an episode on the book, I decided to check it out.
The Bond King is the story of Bill Gross, the man who founded Pacific Management Investment Corporation (Pimco) and basically made the concept of trading bonds profitable and successful, hence the title “bond king”. Pimco profited during the 2008 financial crisis, but the atmosphere at the company eventually got too toxic and things went downhill from there.
Personally, while I understand the basics of bonds and how they work, bond trading is a different matter. Quite a bit of what Pimco did, especially the things with derivatives, went right over my head. Childs does her best to make the financial things understandable, but this is ultimately a book about Bill Gross and Pimco and not a Bonds 101 class, so while I understood enough to follow along, I don’t think I finished this book understanding enough about bonds to explain everything that went on.
But what I did understand (and what Childs also mentions at the end of the book) is that toxic companies harm people in many ways. Given that Gross built Pimco up from scratch, it’s hard not to lay the blame for the company culture at his feet. But at the same time, I think many of the top executives (including El-Erian) who were happy to let Gross have full reign while Pimco was making money should take some responsibility for the company culture as well. After all, it did feel like they only started to act when Gross started losing his magic touch with money, although to be fair, he also seemed to get more unstable during this period, so to pick out one thing and say “this is why” is difficult.
Overall, this was an interesting book. I think you’d probably need some basic knowledge of what bonds are to understand what’s going on, but once you have that, it’s easy enough to follow along. After all, the real story isn’t about how bonds work, but how Bill Gross made Pimco successful and how he lost control of it all.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads>
The Bond King is the story of Bill Gross, the man who founded Pacific Management Investment Corporation (Pimco) and basically made the concept of trading bonds profitable and successful, hence the title “bond king”. Pimco profited during the 2008 financial crisis, but the atmosphere at the company eventually got too toxic and things went downhill from there.
Personally, while I understand the basics of bonds and how they work, bond trading is a different matter. Quite a bit of what Pimco did, especially the things with derivatives, went right over my head. Childs does her best to make the financial things understandable, but this is ultimately a book about Bill Gross and Pimco and not a Bonds 101 class, so while I understood enough to follow along, I don’t think I finished this book understanding enough about bonds to explain everything that went on.
But what I did understand (and what Childs also mentions at the end of the book) is that toxic companies harm people in many ways. Given that Gross built Pimco up from scratch, it’s hard not to lay the blame for the company culture at his feet. But at the same time, I think many of the top executives (including El-Erian) who were happy to let Gross have full reign while Pimco was making money should take some responsibility for the company culture as well. After all, it did feel like they only started to act when Gross started losing his magic touch with money, although to be fair, he also seemed to get more unstable during this period, so to pick out one thing and say “this is why” is difficult.
Overall, this was an interesting book. I think you’d probably need some basic knowledge of what bonds are to understand what’s going on, but once you have that, it’s easy enough to follow along. After all, the real story isn’t about how bonds work, but how Bill Gross made Pimco successful and how he lost control of it all.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads>
June 26, 2022
A deeply disturbing book on the insular world of very rich financial execs. The author has a delightfully approachable demeanor to the book that makes it less threatening. This really helps make it more readable.
Without some cursory knowledge of the financial sector, this book will be hard to follow because it dives deep into market tactics and uses a lot of jargon. She does her best to explain a lot of it, but this is not a book for beginners.
It is a truly haunting account of how money and power can turn people into monsters.
Without some cursory knowledge of the financial sector, this book will be hard to follow because it dives deep into market tactics and uses a lot of jargon. She does her best to explain a lot of it, but this is not a book for beginners.
It is a truly haunting account of how money and power can turn people into monsters.
April 5, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. As a retired financial advisor I am well aware of Bill Gross, Mohamed El-Erian, and others including Ed Thorpe. I respected them and listened to them carefully to form my own opinions. I recommended Pimco bond funds for years and was very happy with the results. I easily understood and appreciated the details of different trading strategies. Childs did an excellent job of laying them out. Gross's strategic use of "strangles"to trade market volatility was a major part of my option trading and was quite successful. I never realized that Gross used them in his bond funds.
March 15, 2022
King Lear meets Wall Street. Reading the book is like watching a sculpture artist with their chisel, revealing the human/monster/human within. And it's a true story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2022
I had high hopes for this! It did not live up unfortunately.
This is the first biography I’ve read, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. But in general, the story just isn’t that engaging. It’s dramatic at times, but the writing meandering and there are few likable characters. There are dozens of characters that appear for two pages, then again 20 pages later and then are gone which made it very difficult to follow at times.
That said, Bill Gross is a unlikable but fascinating character. His values and character seem contradictory at times. But he is devilishly clever and it is clear that he knows the market he pioneered extremely well!
The most entertaining parts were the stories of individual trades PIMCO made. Like betting that the housing market would crash, betting congress would bail out the system, then using their influence to make that happen. Or finding a loophole in a futures contract and using that to squeeze the underlying asset. Or how they would create systemic edges of “lamda cash” by reinvesting. Those parts were very entertaining.
This is the first biography I’ve read, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. But in general, the story just isn’t that engaging. It’s dramatic at times, but the writing meandering and there are few likable characters. There are dozens of characters that appear for two pages, then again 20 pages later and then are gone which made it very difficult to follow at times.
That said, Bill Gross is a unlikable but fascinating character. His values and character seem contradictory at times. But he is devilishly clever and it is clear that he knows the market he pioneered extremely well!
The most entertaining parts were the stories of individual trades PIMCO made. Like betting that the housing market would crash, betting congress would bail out the system, then using their influence to make that happen. Or finding a loophole in a futures contract and using that to squeeze the underlying asset. Or how they would create systemic edges of “lamda cash” by reinvesting. Those parts were very entertaining.
January 20, 2023
This was a very quick read - got to the end of a chapter and wanted to keep going. I’ve long subscribed to the school of thought which Mary Childs talks about early on in this book: stocks are exciting, bonds are kind of boring. This deep dive on Bill Gross & PIMCO challenged that preconception. It is probably particularly enjoyable for a fintwit lurker (🙋🏻♂️) but this story touches on so much more — work/life balance, capital and labor, corporate culture and power dynamics. Childs is a gifted writer; I love the humor in this!
May 23, 2022
This is a good book about finance, management, the great financial crisis of 2008-09, and bond finance.
Some previous basic knowledge of finance is recommended, though not necessary.
I think the book is efficient.
Some previous basic knowledge of finance is recommended, though not necessary.
I think the book is efficient.
May 20, 2022
Thought I was interested in Bill Gross and PIMCO. I wasn’t. Don’t know whether it was just me or this book.
July 24, 2022
Not particularly engaging if you are looking for a good story, not particularly informative if you are looking to learn about bond markets. Also Bill Gross seems like a huge dickhead.
January 6, 2023
A biography of Bill Gross focused on the internal politics of Pimco towards the end of his reign written by an irritating female journalist.
July 5, 2023
Pretty good? Gross does seem extremely intelligent, and his criticisms of the finance industry and the groupthink of large corporations definitely rang true. He didn't beat the market for three decades by being dumb. But ultimately, finance is not mostly about being smart! It's about marketing the appearance of being smart, while using insider trading, monopolization, and the faith and credit of real money that real people made by doing real jobs to subsidize their fake jobs. The savings and loan crisis revealed this, the mortgage crisis revealed this, crypto revealed this. Gross is mad at the company he made because they want him to be a better salesman in a time when he made some bad decisions. He doesn't want to be accountable for those decisions. This makes him sound whiny and not smart.
Smart thing that Gross mentions in this book: buy the cheapest index funds you can find and hold on to them forever. Even smart people like him will eventually lose to the market, but as long as you can wait out a bad spell, you can make so much more money not paying an investment advisor and getting passive returns than you can putting your money in an actively managed fund like the ones he ran that eventually bombed, because you're not paying fees.
Smart thing that Gross mentions in this book: buy the cheapest index funds you can find and hold on to them forever. Even smart people like him will eventually lose to the market, but as long as you can wait out a bad spell, you can make so much more money not paying an investment advisor and getting passive returns than you can putting your money in an actively managed fund like the ones he ran that eventually bombed, because you're not paying fees.
April 3, 2023
This is less a review and more an explanation. This book was written for (someone like) me. I’m fascinated with institutional finance. I was a bond trader out of college, a lowly analyst working on my Bloomberg terminal trying to pick up the machinations of what was going on around me. Frequently I would look up at the TVs that surrounded the floor to see Mr. Gross or Mr. El-Erian giving their seasoned points of view of what was happening in the market, and what they were going to do about it. They were characters in that part of my life.
To read a well researched book that pulls back the curtain of PIMCO/Bill Gross is something I’ve wanted for years. This book delivers. Could it have focused more on PIMCO? I would have loved that. Could it have focused more on pointing out the moral hazards of Bill Gross? I would have loved that too. Bur for me, the book delivered on the making of The Bond King.
To read a well researched book that pulls back the curtain of PIMCO/Bill Gross is something I’ve wanted for years. This book delivers. Could it have focused more on PIMCO? I would have loved that. Could it have focused more on pointing out the moral hazards of Bill Gross? I would have loved that too. Bur for me, the book delivered on the making of The Bond King.
June 16, 2022
Loved the audiobook, read by Childs herself (a Planet Money podcast host, so you know she’s good). Ultimately, I walked away with a slight understanding of Total Return and the evolution of the bond market, but to me, this was more a commentary on Gross and the b/millionaires who run this industry. As a non-finance person I liked the anecdotes more than the money talk. Would recommend if you like Planet Money and/or high profile biographies that are like a dumpster fire you can’t help but watch.
May 8, 2022
I was interested in this book because I read an excerpt about Bill Gross's bizarre behavior, and because I wanted to learn more about investing. I read a great deal about Gross and his chaotic management style, especially his capriciousness and his ritual humiliation of his staff. But I couldn't follow much of the information about bond investing, which was disappointing. It seems like the author may have anticipated a slightly more sophisticated audience than myself, and I frequently wished for just a bit more explanation of trades or strategies in plain English.
February 16, 2023
Entertaining book tying together the careers of several financial figures. I was several times surprised that stories I'd heard in the news traced back to people profiled in the book. Well written and read by Mary Childs, host of Planet Money podcast.
"The new hire interview should be two questions: were you abused as a child and did you like it."
"The new hire interview should be two questions: were you abused as a child and did you like it."
April 12, 2022
People think stocks are more fun, but, in my opinion, they are wrong. Stocks are dumb
Thoroughly enjoyable book about basis points, bond markets, crazy finance men...you may think money management is boring but this book will change your mind!
Thoroughly enjoyable book about basis points, bond markets, crazy finance men...you may think money management is boring but this book will change your mind!
October 25, 2022
As someone who previously worked in the asset management industry, I very much enjoyed getting a deep dive into Bill Gross' methods and fall. This was a well-written book that told an interesting story. Despite reality getting increasingly wacky towards the end, there were a few things worth learning here. A lot of hugely successful investments were hugely successful because they were weird things everyone else was afraid of doing. At some point, you really need to retire. And success is fickle.
May 11, 2023
Well written and informative book that does a quality job highlighting inner workings of the finance industry. Valuable read and would recommend. Being a novice reader to this style of writing is a self limitation that kept me from rating the book higher.
June 22, 2023
I learned a lot about the bond market, how it was re-shaped post recession as well as the trading theory of just staying in the game. Also, I’m wondering if Gross was born with that toxicity and intensity or if those are traits that he developed as a result from obsession with wealth creation.
April 1, 2022
[Audiobook] This book left me wanting more. I feel like there are certain areas being left out.
May 19, 2022
if you have billions of dollars and become a bitter loser at the end, thats on you
June 27, 2022
Bond. James Bond
April 3, 2023
Realized halfway through that if I had taken my wife’s name in marriage I would have shared a name with the subject of this book.
November 22, 2023
The Bond King- great nickname
January 28, 2023
Five stars for the reporting — so many juicy details — and for the conversational, even funny at times writing style. Ultimately, though, I’m just not that invested in the life of Bill Gross. I’m glad I read it and it gave me fresh appreciation of excellent business journalism.
May 16, 2022
Mary Childs has delivered a first-rate look inside the mind and world of Bill Gross, the once-great "Bond King" who fell from grace (and his perch atop PIMCO) due to ego, paranoia, and perhaps too much success. Gross's life story follows the trajectory of bond trading in the United States: from a sleepy backwater of the finance world to the center of the Wall Street mania of the 2000s and the Great Recession. Throughout his life, Gross has a knack for making the right bet, whether it be using a loophole for mortgage-backed securities in the '80s to betting on a recession before the fall of Bear Stearns, Lehman, and the rest of the global economy. Gross possesses a lawyer-like affection for details, dipping into the minutiae of bonds, financing, and trades to make ever more money for PIMCO's clients.
Childs avoids the obvious trap for books like these: getting lost in the byzantine details of Wall Street. From bonds to derivatives, Childs takes the time to explain each step succinctly and in plain English. The author's aptitude for such details is enormously appreciated and suits her well for future projects in the universe of Wall Street.
Like many kings, Gross doesn't appreciate when to quit. After the Great Recession, Gross fails to step back from his PIMCO responsibilities, bringing on, and then unceremoniously terminating, his successor, Mohamed El-Erian in a corporate divorce every bit as messy as Gross's personal ones. In rubbing elbows against PIMCO's other traders, Gross simply cannot let go. Eventually, PIMCO pushes out its founder and trader extraordinaire, sending Gross off to Janus and retirement.
One of the frustrating aspects of Gross's legacy, as is the same with Wall Street figures generally, is what his efforts produced in a real sense. After reading this book, a reader may appreciate the deft trades, cunning maneuvers, and smart forecasting of Gross and PIMCO. But what did all that produce? Steve Jobs produced iPhones; Elon Musk throttled the US and world into a future with electric vehicles; the scientists of Pfizer, Moderna, and non-profit research centers created a vaccine to protect the world from COVID-19. At the end of the day, Gross may have only a few tangible things left in his wake: hurt feelings; massive piles of cash; and nifty bond-trading techniques understood by few and benefiting only the richest of the rich.
Childs avoids the obvious trap for books like these: getting lost in the byzantine details of Wall Street. From bonds to derivatives, Childs takes the time to explain each step succinctly and in plain English. The author's aptitude for such details is enormously appreciated and suits her well for future projects in the universe of Wall Street.
Like many kings, Gross doesn't appreciate when to quit. After the Great Recession, Gross fails to step back from his PIMCO responsibilities, bringing on, and then unceremoniously terminating, his successor, Mohamed El-Erian in a corporate divorce every bit as messy as Gross's personal ones. In rubbing elbows against PIMCO's other traders, Gross simply cannot let go. Eventually, PIMCO pushes out its founder and trader extraordinaire, sending Gross off to Janus and retirement.
One of the frustrating aspects of Gross's legacy, as is the same with Wall Street figures generally, is what his efforts produced in a real sense. After reading this book, a reader may appreciate the deft trades, cunning maneuvers, and smart forecasting of Gross and PIMCO. But what did all that produce? Steve Jobs produced iPhones; Elon Musk throttled the US and world into a future with electric vehicles; the scientists of Pfizer, Moderna, and non-profit research centers created a vaccine to protect the world from COVID-19. At the end of the day, Gross may have only a few tangible things left in his wake: hurt feelings; massive piles of cash; and nifty bond-trading techniques understood by few and benefiting only the richest of the rich.
May 13, 2022
This book is about the bond investor Bill Gross who started and built a large bond trading company known as Pimco. Bill Gross was a shrewd bond investor making him large sums of money. He was probably somewhere on the autistic spectrum. Despite his successes he was a very dysfunctional controlling individual and his personality created a company with a dysfunctional work environment. Working for him seemed to be like selling your soul to the devil. You made lots of money but had to tolerate the dysfunction. As Bill got older and dementia probably set in, he was jettisoned by the company that he had created as he became odder and odder. People can only tolerate so much. The writing was probably fine but I will have to admit that I didn't really care for the subject. Maybe there were some life lessons I could have gleaned from the book but didn't. It took me a long time to get through the book as well I found it rather boring and maybe should have bailed after the first few chapters. The subject matter was perhaps interesting for an article but not for a whole book.
May 14, 2022
Even though on paper this took me a month to finish, "The Bond King" is well-paced, light and simple to read. Mostly due to distractions and an unfortunate public gym-related COVID diagnosis that fried my brain I wasn't able to digest this as quickly as I wanted to. "Why does this matter?" You might ask. Well, some non-fiction authors dwell on their subjects and their experiences, some authors write in abstract about how events affect their framework which they are studying, and even some delve into excruciating historical detail with passing dramatic paragraphs to keep the book from getting stale (im looking at you, Wilentz). Mary Childs is a journalist, and to her credit, she writes like one. Making this break-up saga of Mr. Billionaire and his Very Important Very Big Investment Firm into a digestible drama with :( limited insight into the bond/financial market. I've heard it before that "Economics is just another manifestation of human emotions" and well, this book can give you some backing for that theory. Unfortunately, this theme only really starts flowering towards the latter half, where things start falling apart for our main character. "The Bond King" then turns into a spiraling tale of a paranoid, ego-bruised CIO who was once legendary and whose deteriorating mental state threaten the profitability of the firm he founded. His partners, co-workers and perceived enemies all start maneuver to shove Bill Gross out while still subjected to his, arguably, abusive management style.
This tragedy definitely falls under the morbid curiosity category as the insight gleaned is something close to: "Hurt people hurt people" and nothing more extensive. Until the final pages under the "Author's Note" chapter heading where Mary Childs excoriates the painfully pale white boy finance industry culture which she has covered thus far. This puts her writing thus far into a more focused and personally appealing light, but without sounding crass: it's too much, too late.
She writes in this section, "Over the many years of study and robust sample of sources, from years of being practically immersed in this place and its culture, I have drawn a few conclusions. I've learned that staying too long in a crucible of toxicity and insecurity has long lasting corrosive effects on the mind " While also adding, in a familiar quippy tone peppered around the book, "I have not yet figured out if becoming unfathomably wealthy makes a person maximally petty, or if that extreme pettiness is a pre-existing condition that helps effectuate the wealth accumulation; or if most of us harbor the capacity but our vindictiveness only becomes visible when enough money reveals it". An interesting (but not surprising) view from an NPR finance journalist! However, just as a note for comparison, her book jacket advertises the book as "[a] story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino." and "To understand the winners and losers of today's money game, journalist Mary Child argues, is to understand the bond market- and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King".
All of this text wall to say that I rather read more about the emotional toll taken by Bill Gross on the way down than the material strategy he employed on the way up. At least in the context of this book.
Rating: 3.5/5
This tragedy definitely falls under the morbid curiosity category as the insight gleaned is something close to: "Hurt people hurt people" and nothing more extensive. Until the final pages under the "Author's Note" chapter heading where Mary Childs excoriates the painfully pale white boy finance industry culture which she has covered thus far. This puts her writing thus far into a more focused and personally appealing light, but without sounding crass: it's too much, too late.
She writes in this section, "Over the many years of study and robust sample of sources, from years of being practically immersed in this place and its culture, I have drawn a few conclusions. I've learned that staying too long in a crucible of toxicity and insecurity has long lasting corrosive effects on the mind " While also adding, in a familiar quippy tone peppered around the book, "I have not yet figured out if becoming unfathomably wealthy makes a person maximally petty, or if that extreme pettiness is a pre-existing condition that helps effectuate the wealth accumulation; or if most of us harbor the capacity but our vindictiveness only becomes visible when enough money reveals it". An interesting (but not surprising) view from an NPR finance journalist! However, just as a note for comparison, her book jacket advertises the book as "[a] story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino." and "To understand the winners and losers of today's money game, journalist Mary Child argues, is to understand the bond market- and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King".
All of this text wall to say that I rather read more about the emotional toll taken by Bill Gross on the way down than the material strategy he employed on the way up. At least in the context of this book.
Rating: 3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews