In what is the biggest black eye for Bill Gross and the largest bond manager in the world, moments ago Bloomberg reported that the title of the world's largest mutual fund has just changed hands:
- PIMCO TOTAL RETURN LOSES LARGEST MUTUAL FUND TITLE TO VANGUARD
- GROSS'S PIMCO TOTAL RETURN BECAME LARGEST MUTUAL FUND IN 2008
- PIMCO TOTAL RETURN HAD $247.9 BILLION IN ASSETS AS OF OCT. 31
This comes on the heels of what Reuters reports is the sixth consecutive month of outflows for the TRF, with $4.4 billion withdrawn in October, while on the other side Vanguard, now at $251 billion, has more than tripled in size since the end of 2008 as the scramble for equities in Bernanke's new normal has become the only game in town.
Which begs the question: a few months ago, the BOE's Andy Haldane stated explicitly [8]that central bankers have "intentionally blown the biggest government bond bubble in history." So with this symbolic shift away from bonds and into stocks, is the bubble now well and truly just an equity phenomenon?