Mohamed El-Erian Declared "Maximum Risk-Off." The Market Declared Otherwise.

On March 30, 2026, respected economist Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC viewers he had moved to "maximum risk-off" positioning and explicitly warned against buying broad stock indexes like the S&P 500. That same day? The market bottomed. By April 15—just two and a half weeks later—the S&P 500 had rallied over 10% to a fresh all-time high. Sometimes the worst time to go defensive is right when a legendary economist says you should. Sometimes the charts don't read the memo.