Crude oil prices are struggling as global markets get fearful about the future causing safe haven buying in Treasuries and the U.S. dollar. The massive comeback in crude oil is put on hold as traders fear everything from a Brexit vote to the Fed as well as dire predictions about the economy from none other than George Soros and “Bond King” Bill Gross.

Size seems to matter in some aspects of life, and it certainly does in the financial markets. Super-size August movements in global stocks are but one sign that something may be amiss in the global economy itself – China notwithstanding. There’s the timing and the eventual “size” of the Fed’s “tightening” cycle that I have long advocated but which now seems to be destined to be labeled “too little, too late.”

Investors pulled $18.5 million from Bill Gross's Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund in February, the first such cash withdrawal since the closely watched investor took on the portfolio in October, Morningstar said on Monday.

In the case of Bill Gross—the legendary “bond king” at Pimco—perhaps it would be better to describe him as a whale in the pond.

Mohamed El-Erian, widely viewed as the successor to Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross, resigned after six years as the firm struggles to stem record redemptions from the world’s largest bond fund.

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said the pace of payroll growth in November signals there a 50% chance the Federal Reserve will begin tapering its monthly bond purchases this month.

Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross reduced holdings of Treasuries and other U.S.- government-related debt in his flagship fund in August to 35%, the lowest level since March.

Adaptation is tantamount to survival in the physical world; the same holds true in war and trading. Where some see bond strategies going the way of cavalry tactics in modern war, Bill Gross argues bonds still are an attractive asset, if used tactically.

On April 19, three weeks before he called the end of the 30-year bull market in bonds, Bill Gross said he was buying inflation-linked Treasuries, a bet that money printing by the world’s central banks would push up consumer prices.

Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s largest active bond manager, said investors should cut risk amid a more than 60% chance of a global recession in the next three to five years.