Early life & education
Lee is the third of four children born to Korean-immigrant parents. His father practised psychiatry while his mother ran a Subway franchise, experiences Lee credits with shaping his work ethic. After graduating from John Glenn High School in suburban Detroit, he entered Wharton, earning a BS in Economics in 1991 and joining Delta Upsilon fraternity. He later obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and remains active in the CFA Society of New York.
Kidder, Peabody & Co. (early 1990s) – Telecom analyst trainee.
Salomon Smith Barney (mid-1990s) – Rose to Managing Director covering wireless & media stocks.
J.P. Morgan Chase (1999-2014) – Joined as senior strategist; promoted to Chief U.S. Equity Strategist in 2007. He was ranked in Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Team every year from 1998 onward.
During this period Lee occasionally courted controversy; a bearish 2002 note on Nextel led the company to publicly rebut his analysis, an episode covered by The Wall Street Journal.
Dissatisfied with the pressures of large-bank research, Lee co-founded Fundstrat Global Advisors in 2014, positioning it as an independent, data-driven macro and sector strategy shop. He leads a team that publishes on equity markets, digital assets and U.S. policy, and frequently briefs hedge funds, RIAs and corporate CEOs.
Market stance. Lee is best known for bullish calls in turbulent moments—e.g., turning positive within days of the March 2020 Covid-19 crash—and for early mainstream coverage of Bitcoin, projecting as high as $55 k in a 2017 note that framed the token as “cannibalizing” gold.
Current outlook. In 2024 he raised his S&P 500 year-end target to 5 500 and later 6 000, and in mid-2025 argued the index could reach 6 600 if disinflation persists.
Crypto research. Lee leads Fundstrat’s Digital-Asset Strategy, often citing on-chain data and demographic money-supply models. Critics label him a “perma-bull,” noting missed timing during the 2021-22 bear market, while supporters point to long-run gains.
Lee appears regularly on CNBC programmes such as Fast Money, Halftime Report and Tech Check and is a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV, Fox Business and major crypto podcasts. His research quotes often move headlines on MarketWatch and Yahoo Finance.
In August 2020 Lee retweeted physician James Todaro’s comments on hydroxychloroquine, prompting a CNN story that criticised analysts spreading Covid-19 “disinformation.” Lee subsequently deleted the tweets and said his intent was to “air diverse viewpoints, not give medical advice.”
Lee keeps family matters largely private; public filings show he lives in New York City with his wife and three children. Beyond finance he supports Asian-American arts, serving on the board of the New York Asian Film Festival and funding several Korean-American student scholarships.
Style & reputation. Colleagues describe Lee as data-heavy but optimistic, blending demographic trends (“Millennial boom”), liquidity metrics and technical signals. Supporters dub him a “Wall-Street oracle,” while detractors critique his bullish bias. Nevertheless, his willingness to publish explicit, timestamped targets—and accept post-hoc scrutiny—has made him one of the most followed independent strategists on Wall Street.
