JPMorgan Fired "Wall Street's Nostradamus" for Being Too Bearish. The S&P 500 Then Rallied Another 25%.

For 19 years, Marko Kolanovic was JPMorgan's oracle — Bloomberg called him "Gandalf," CNBC dubbed him "the man who moves markets." He correctly called the 2015 slump, the 2018 Volmageddon crash, and the post-COVID rally. Then he went permanently bearish. Starting in September 2023, Kolanovic warned of an imminent crash and maintained his S&P 500 target at 4,200 — the lowest on Wall Street. As the AI rally pushed markets to new highs, he doubled down. JPMorgan finally lost patience and fired him on July 3, 2024. The S&P 500 promptly hit a new all-time high of 5,667 on July 16. It closed 2024 at 5,881 — a full 40% above his target. The index gained another 16% in 2025. Being right three times in a row doesn't make you Nostradamus. Being catastrophically wrong when it matters makes you unemployed.