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Gundlach Recommends Closing Out His Trade That Returned 22% in a Month

Gundlach Recommends Closing Out His Trade That Returned 22% in a Month

(Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey Gundlach is satisfied with the pitch he gave at the New York Sohn Investment Conference last month. Now, he’s advising investors take profits and close out the trade.

In early May, the co-founder and chief investment officer of DoubleLine Capital LP said interest-rate volatility could not possibly remain as low as it’s been the past eight years. To turn a profit, he recommended investors employ a put-call straddle on the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, known by its ticker TLT. In a tweet late Wednesday, he said it’s time to cash out.

Bond yields plummeted and interest-rate volatility spiked last month after trade talks between the U.S. and China fell apart. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s MOVE Index, which tracks Treasury volatility, rose nearly 50% in May and currently sits at the highest level in 2 1/2 years.

Gundlach weighed in on the swift bond rally last week, too, tweeting that longer-dated Treasury price-action appeared to be consistent with a “blowoff momentum top.” The yield on 30-year Treasury bonds fell from 2.9% to 2.57% in May, the biggest monthly drop in three years. As of 1:01 p.m. in New York, 30-year Treasury yields stood at 2.59%.

--With assistance from Luke Kawa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka

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