Billionaire Mets’ owner Steve Cohen and poster boy trader Dave Portnoy in fiery GameStop fight
Sarah Sharples, 29 January 2021
An online stoush has erupted between the billionaire owner of baseball team The Mets and a day-trading poster boy surrounding the GameStop stock controversy. The war of words started when day trader Dave Portnoy blasted Steve Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire and Mets owner, about restrictions on trading apps including Robinhood, which are used by amateur investors.
GameStop, a brick-and-mortar video retailer, has seen its stock skyrockets after Reddit renegades set out to prevent Wall Street “fat cats” from making huge profits from it.
Politicians have lashed out at Robinhood’s decision to halt trading on GameStop and other company stocks, with the app accused of backing Wall Street over novice traders. Mr Portnoy didn’t mince his words with his first tweet. “PRISON TIME”, he tweeted as he tagged Cohen, founder of Point72 Capital, along with Citadel, another hedge fund run by a billionaire.
His tweet linked to a story about politicians’ outrage at the restrictions imposed by Robinhood.
But Mr Cohen hit back at the day trader’s tweet. “Hey Dave, What’s your beef with me. I’m just trying to make a living just like you. Happy to take this offline,” he wrote.
