Name: Steven A. Cohen
Date of birth: 11/06/1956
Net worth: $13.6B
Starting point: Cohen was born in quite a big family. Third of seven siblings, he was a child of a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district and a piano teacher. He had a great interest in poker and claimed to participate in tournaments to “learn how to take risks”.
High point:
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Steven Cohen got a degree in economics from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania. Not only he managed to successfully complete his education, but he also opened a brokerage account - with a little help from his friend, of course (little help being estimated in $1,000).
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After his graduation, he got himself a job in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. Being a junior trader is not that big of an accomplishment, but he made $8,000 of profit per day!
Low point:
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In 1992, he quit his job and started his own business from scratch. And $10M. The company was named S.A.C. Capital Advisors.
High point:
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In 2003, the New York Times described SAC as one of the biggest hedge funds.
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In 2009, Steve Cohen’s company gained $14B in equity.
Low point:
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In 2012, the company and Cohen himself were involved in one of the greatest scandals of the trading community. He and his employees were accused of using insider information to their own benefit. The investigation lasted for 4 years and ended in Steven Cohen being restricted from managing outside money until 2018. The overall amount of penalties paid was $1.8B, but Steven Cohen avoided being sentenced.
High point:
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However, in 2016, he established a new company, Point72 Ventures. Was it successful? Well, it currently has $13B in assets under management.
Curious facts:
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Cohen is a known passionate fan of art and he has a huge collection of paintings worth $1B, including original paintings of Picasso.
His main ideas of insider trading might be just described with this one quote:
The way I understand the rules on trading on inside information, it's very vague.
