Janus' Bill Gross warns on risky assets in 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Closely watched bond investor Bill Gross on Tuesday advised caution for investors in the year ahead, suggesting that 2015 will not be a year of outsized gains.

"Be cautious and content with low positive returns in 2015. The time for risk taking has passed," Gross, who oversees the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund (JUCAX.O), wrote in his monthly investment outlook.

Gross titled his letter "Ides," as in the Ides of March, and warned investors to stay vigilant.

"When the year is done, there will be minus signs in front of returns for many asset classes. The good times are over," he wrote.

The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which Pimco co-founder Bill Gross started managing in October, attracted an estimated $770 million in November, bringing its assets to more than $1.2 billion, according to Morningstar data.

Previously, in a collection of investment views released on Monday on the Janus Capital site, Gross had noted expectations for low global growth in 2015.

In those views, he noted that the U.S. Federal Reserve could find itself challenged to raise interest rates in 2015, despite its recent signalling that tighter policy could be on the way.

On Tuesday, he went further, saying that "at some future date ... asset returns in many categories may turn negative."

Should that happen, he wrote, investors should consider "high-quality assets with stable cash flows" such as "Treasury and high-quality corporate bonds, as well as equities of lightly levered corporations with attractive dividends and diversified revenues both operationally and geographically."

Gross, long known and still considered the world's "Bond King," quit bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco) on Sept. 26 for distant rival Janus. Two sources had told Reuters he was expected to be fired the next day.

Gross helped launch Pimco more than four decades ago and built it into a $2 trillion investment powerhouse, only to see his reputation suffer after a run of lacklustre returns, more than a year-and-a-half of outflows from Pimco's flagship fund, and unflattering stories about his management style.

At Janus, Gross' monthly outlooks have continued the mix of investing advice and quirky asides for which he's been known. The January letter, for example, referred to Father Time as a "grumpy old codger" and opened with a cartoon depicting the passing of last year and beginning of this.

"2015 may see a continuing round of musical chairs as riskier asset categories become less and less desirable," he wrote on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Luciana Lopez; additional reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alan Crosby)