How Steven Cohen Built, and Almost Lost, His $12.7 Billion Net Worth
Kay Jenkins, 11 June 2016
Steven A Cohen has a net worth of $12.7 billion, a figure that grew from a relatively small $25 million seed investment into his hedge fund, SAC Capital, in 1992. The firm was wildly successful in the 1990s and 2000s, minting billions for Cohen and his investors until an SEC investigation into insider trading effectively shuttered the firm in 2012.
Cohen may have fallen from grace, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the game forever. In fact, some think he just may be getting started.
Building a hedge-fund empire: Cohen began his career in finance in 1978 as a junior trader for Gruntal & Co. During the next 14 years, he would amass a substantial net worth from trading, routinely earning more than $100,000 per day for the firm. That cash flow was enough to amass enough cash to provide half of the $25 million seed funding for his own investment company, a hedge fund called SAC Capital.
SAC Capital grew quickly, profiting from Cohen’s lightening-quick style of trading, holding stocks for just a few hours — or days in most cases. In a 1999 speech, Cohen said that:
We trade. A lot. Over 20 million shares a day. A broker’s dream come true. We trade fast. … It’s not growth investing. It’s not value investing. It’s short-term catalyst investing.
