April 4, 2022· 45 min

How Bill Gross Built a Bond Empire And Then Lost It All

Orality
Model
80%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,734 words)
M:29%
HostJoe Weisenthal(1,635 words)
M:29%
GuestMary Childs(5,406 words)
M:93%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic37%
very, definitely, extremely
Engagement68%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, so, now
Repetition100%
like (233x), know (153x), they (93x)
Parallelism92%
So I have been covering bond m..., And when you're covering bond ..., And I don't know if you feel t...
Sound Patterns75%
72 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases4%
i mean, if you will

Literate Indicators

Hedging9%
could, maybe, may
Passive Voice6%
be joined, is managed, be traded
Abstract Nouns16%
investment, information, volatility
Subordination7%
however, because, unless
Sentence Length41%
Avg: 15.1 words/sentence
Word Complexity44%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers3%
according to
Impersonal Style32%
650 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style87%
monthly, carefully, inevitably

Description

For a long time, bond investing was considered a sleepy backwater. You bought a bond and just clipped coupons as you waited for it mature. Boring! Then Bill Gross discovered that bonds could be traded. He founded Pimco and proceeded to make lots of money from bond investing in sometimes questionable ways. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Matt Levine co-hosts in this special Odd Lots episode with Mary Childs, who's just published a book on Gross called "The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire and Lost It All." We discuss some of Pimco's most famous trades, whether Gross was a good investor, and his legacy to the world of bonds. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.