Steven Cohen: how a card player became a financier

In many ways, our success depends on an ordinary chance or opportunity that appears once in a lifetime, and, as a rule, at such a moment we have to risk almost everything and possibly our future.

The success story of Steven Cohen successfully shows us how an ordinary student, putting his future career on the line, simply amazed the whole world with his success and for some time eclipsed George Soros himself and his foundation.

Steven Cohen was born and grew up in an ordinary middle-income family, where his father was a clothing manufacturer, and his mother worked as an ordinary music teacher and taught piano lessons.

Born and lived in New York State in a town called Great Neck. The future millionaire grew up in a fairly large family, so from a very young age he clearly understood that it was necessary to be able to concentrate on a specific task in order to achieve success.

From the moment when Stephen began studying at school, he had two talents, namely, he was a very good and successful student and at the same time an avid gambler, who simply had no equal in the class.

After graduating from school, the young man decided to get a higher education, and since he really liked the economic direction, he decides to enter the university in Pennsylvania. An avid gambler actively spends his leisure time playing poker, but at the same time, due to his penchant for gambling, he gradually begins to get involved in the stock exchange.

The beginning of a passion for stock trading.

The Gruntal brokerage office was right next door, so in his free time he actively monitored the movement of quotes and prices. As you understand, the training was paid, but instead of paying for another semester at the university, Steven Cohen takes a thousand dollars and opens his first account with the brokerage company Gruntal.

One could only imagine his parents' reaction, but it was this step that completely turned Cohen's world upside down and became a great impetus in achieving the goal of becoming a millionaire. It was by putting his future on the line that fate turned to face him.

The first thoughtless investment, oddly enough, brought excellent profits, and the active and successful student was noticed by the same brokerage company Gruntal, which in 1978 invited him to work. Of course, the future trader did not refuse and grabbed his chance with both hands.

Just imagine, on his first day of work, Cohen managed to earn 8 thousand dollars for his employer. Seeing serious successes, management began to trust the young trader more and more and provided more and more capital.

The company's profitability level began to grow so rapidly that Stephen began to bring in 100 thousand dollars a day for his company, thus covering the losses of many other traders. After working for only six years, he was entrusted with managing his own investment portfolio, which amounted to $75 million.

In 1992, an already experienced and experienced trader decides to leave Gruntal and opens his own hedge fund, the capital of which at that time was $20 million. Because Cohen valued his work, he set a very high commission for managing funds, so, despite his fame, he managed to collect only $13 million in investor funds.

However, within a year he doubles the size of his capital, and in 1995 SAC's assets increased by 400 percent. Staggering profit growth and an influx of investor money are forcing Steven Cohen to open new branches and develop his business further.

Steven Cohen Trading Strategy

Steven Cohen is the complete opposite of an investor like Warren Buffett. He was completely committed to short-term trading, and as his colleagues mentioned, he sometimes managed to conclude up to 300 transactions a day, without delving into any economic details.

In order to select undervalued or overvalued assets, he developed a special program that allowed him to do most of the routine work for him.

By the way, the financier claimed that his fund was not liked only because it did not invest, but traded.

At this stage, if you add up all the funds from the various funds managed by Steven Cohen’s subordinates, then the amount of capital is $1.2 trillion. According to various sources, 2 percent of transactions on the stock exchange belong to his funds.