Merrill Lynch's Top Internet Analyst Said Amazon Would Crash to $50. He Lost His Job to the Guy Who Said $400.

In December 1998, a battle of the analysts was brewing. An upstart named Henry Blodget at CIBC Oppenheimer made what seemed like a ludicrous prediction: Amazon, then trading at $240, would hit $400 within a year. Jonathan Cohen, Merrill Lynch's established internet analyst, publicly scoffed at the prediction, countering that Amazon would crash to just $50.

Amazon hit $400 within three weeks.

Cohen promptly left Merrill Lynch. Blodget was hired to replace him. The man who said "$50" was out. The man who said "$400" was in.

But here's the kicker: Even Blodget's bullish $400 call was too conservative. Twenty-seven years later, Amazon is worth over $2 trillion. Adjusted for stock splits, that $240 investment in 1998 would be worth over $25,000 today. Cohen's $50 target? It never came close. The stock has literally never traded that low again.

Sometimes Wall Street's most confident bears don't just miss the target—they lose their jobs to the bulls they mocked.