Before our PIMCO shoot, we were warned that the PIMCO trading floor was kept extremely quiet, so the traders could focus. We told our crew to be as silent as possible. But when we first cautiously tiptoed out onto the trading floor, we heard the distinct buzz of voices. Why was that?  Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian were in a meeting, that's why.  Most of the time, Bill and Mohamed sit at their side-by-side desks right in the middle of the trading floor. When they're not there, apparently, the volume goes up... to a low murmur. PIMCO's US headquarters is located in Newport Beach, California. Traders start arriving at 4 AM to be ready for the East Coast trading day, and by the end of the PIMCO day, all the monitors in the offices are switched to follow the Asian markets. We happened to be at there during one of the most turbulent weeks in stock market history. But you couldn't tell. The company focuses on long-term investments, and whatever was going on that day, they seemed to be taking the long-term perspective. In 10 years time we'd look back and it would all make sense. Meanwhile, the beach, with spectacular cliffs over the Pacific, was only a few minutes down the road.