Despite managing just less than five percent of his old pool of assets, Jeffrey Gundlach still likes to "think of himself as a big-time bond-fund manager." And, he may be right. After all, he scored a profile in this morning's WSJ Fund Track, something that eludes most other fund firm principals this early in their tenure.

In his interview with reporter Daisy Maxey, Gundlach also plugged the newest DoubleLine fund in the works. But that plug was cut from the WSJ version of the story, though it did make the Dow Jones version. The DoubleLine Core Fixed Income fund is set to open in two weeks on June 1. Gundlach promises it will not be a closet indexer and will underweight or overweight select sectors with the help of sector specialists.

The paper reports that Gundlach is focusing on managing DoubleLine's investment line-up (now two funds) and building the new firm's AUM. Gundlach, as everyone in the mutual fund industry must know by now, built his reputation as the bond guru and portfolio manager at TCW before taking a hit and being fired from the firm last year. While at TCW he managed nearly $12 billion in the TCW Total Return Fund. Today at DoubleLine he manages just around $500 million in his new fund at DoubleLine, according to the paper.

Gundlach is putting the best spin on the situation.

"In a way, it's nice to run less money," he tells the paper before stating the "big-time" bond manager quote above. He is pm of the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund (DBLTX), while Luz Padilla is pm for the firm's second fund DoubleLine Emerging Markets Fixed Income Fund (DBLEX).

The article also get's Gundlach's take on the current market environment. He says he is more worried today about deflation caused by tax increases and the end of the stimulus, but that inflation is an eventual concern. He also believes that the housing crisis is not yet over and that we are still in a bear market for stocks.  

Correction: This article was clarified to make clear that the $500 million currently being managed by Gundlach only reflect those in the mutual funds. The firm also manages additional fund in separate accounts for high networth and institutional investors.

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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