It remains to me a mystery how Marko Kolanovic became chief global markets strategist at JPMorgan. He was famous as an expert on market plumbing, particularly in fixed income. He had never been someone who people turned to for macro views.
But he got headlines and evidently that was enough for him to get the top job.
Unfortunately, he didn't know how to play the game.
First of all, he was wrong about the direction of the stock market for the past two years. He relentlessly called for bear markets including on Friday, where he predicted a 23% drop in the S&P 500 by year end. That was perhaps the final straw as he was shown the door today.
Now, if being wrong was disqualifying for market analysts, then there wouldn't be many left.
What he didn't know was that it's perfectly fine to be too bullish and wrong. It's unforgivable to be bearish and wrong, especially if you're bearish for two years in a sizzling bull market.
This is why analysts are always bullish.
