If Bill Gross needed any vindication of how PIMCO investors feel toward him vs. the institution of PIMCO, he got it moments ago when PIMCO's flagship Total Return Fund reported that it had experienced a whopping $19.4 billion in outflows in December. This follows a combined $60.5 billion in outflows since Gross' departure in September, including a record $27.5 billion in October.
In other words, Gross' quitting has been the catalyst for nearly $80 billion in redemptions from the TRF since August: a third of its then AUM of $221.6 billion, which are now down to a paltry $143 billion, less than half the $293 billion peak of April of 2013. And as the chart below shows, if one were to use the highly scientific “Birinyi ruler” method of extrapolation, PIMCO's TRF will have zero assets under management left some time in August.
On the chart below, spot where Bill Gross quit and led to a third (so far) of PIMCO's TRF getting redeemed.
