Just how big has Pimco Total Return become, and could the fund's girth hurt returns? The Wall Street Journal's Tom Lauricella explores those questions in an article that forms part of the WSJ's special Investing in Funds report published Monday.

With $186 billion of assets as of end-September, not only is Total Return the largest mutual fund in the world, by itself it would rank as the seventh-biggest US fund family, Lauricella notes.

Gross is unfazed by the fund's size.

"We've been asked this question for years: 'How do you expect to outperform, because you're so much bigger than you once were?'" Gross was quoted in the article as saying. "The visible proof is in the numbers."

The fund is in the top 5 percent of its Morningstar category for the past three, five and 10 years. It is in the top third of its group over the past year. 

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