Jeffrey Gundlach, whose $51.3 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has outperformed 99 percent of peers over the past five years, said “the coast might be clear” for the first rate increase by the Federal Reserve in almost a decade.

“It’s possible the Fed pulls another Lucy and the football,” Gundlach, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital, which manages about $80 billion, said during a webcast Tuesday.

If the Fed does act next week, a quarter-point increase is likely, he said.