2 October 2014: JPMorgan admits hackers reached 76 million households
JPMorgan Chase disclosed in a regulatory filing that a cyberattack had exposed contact information for about 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. The bank said no account numbers or passwords were taken, and the episode faded from the headlines within weeks. It was a reminder that for the biggest banks, cybersecurity had quietly become as important as credit risk, and that markets often shrug at scary headlines that do not touch earnings.
The lesson: Not every alarming headline changes what a business earns; ask that question before you sell.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in JPMorgan at the start of 2015 → $4,839 today, vs $3,301 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2015, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 4.8 times the money, and $1,538 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What JPMorgan teaches: In a crisis, the strongest balance sheet in an industry does more than survive; it gets to buy weaker rivals' assets at distressed prices.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $62.00 | $4,839 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $108 | $2,778 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $140 | $2,143 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought JPMorgan? Every starting year and the full story →
More JPMorgan history
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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