Steve Cohen: Wall Street’s Untouchable Criminal

It’s common knowledge these days that Wall Street has a lot to answer for. After the events of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, one would hope that governments would crack down on the excesses at the heart of global finance.
Sadly, that simply has not been the case, and the injustice of this state of affairs is perfectly personified by Steve Cohen, a Wall Street investor who made billions of dollars by attaining a “black edge” over fellow investors.
Cohen procured illegal, or “black,” insider information about companies’ performances in order to gain an advantage over fellow investors. To the outside world, he was miraculously lucky, always betting on the right companies at the right time. In reality though, he was almost certainly utilizing an unfair advantage to surpass his rivals.
In 2008, in the midst of the worldwide financial crisis, US federal agents were in the process of taking down Raj Rajaratnam, a Wall Street titan, when they discovered something fascinating.
Rajaratnam was illegally using inside information from companies; he traded on this information and profited from it massively. The agents were intrigued at how one name kept cropping up during interviews with Wall Street insiders: Steve Cohen.
Was there an even larger case waiting to be uncovered? Rajaratnam, it turned out, was small fry - the investigation was only just getting started.
So who is Steve Cohen? Let’s start from the beginning.
Steve Cohen was born in 1956 and grew up in a middle-class family on Long Island, New York. From a young age, he was fascinated with finance.
As a student at the famous Wharton School at the University of Philadelphia, he read the Wall Street Journal every morning and followed the stock market. He was talented too: he played poker with his fellow students and made a lot of money doing so.
In 1978, fresh out of Wharton as a 21-year-old, he landed a job at Gruntal & Co., a New York brokerage firm. Even then, his skills shone through: in one afternoon, he made $4,000, a huge figure in 1978.
Cohen was successful, making $5 million to $10 million a year. But it didn’t take long for the first signs of wrongdoing to appear as he faced charges of insider trading.
In 1985, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, looked into Cohen’s transactions. Cohen had received inside information through a friend about an imminent takeover of electronics company RCA by General Electric. Cohen invested heavily in RCA shares and made $20 million in profits when the takeover was announced.
Even though the criminal case was later dropped, it strongly indicated Cohen had a somewhat unorthodox approach to trading.
Within 14 years, Cohen moved from being a lowly junior trader to a revered Wall Street personality. It would only be a matter of time before he wished to break free of Gruntal and venture out on his own.
So it was that in 1992, Cohen founded his own investment firm, SAC Capital Advisors, using his own initials for the company name. It was a hedge fund that profited by investing money gathered from different individuals and institutions.
Cohen began with $23 million and nine employees, and met with astronomical success. In just three years, SAC had quadrupled in size to $100 million. After that, SAC doubled each year, surpassing $1 billion in assets by 1999.
Cohen’s pockets were overflowing. But just how did he manage to make so much so quickly?
Cohen bet on short-term movements in stock prices. Each day, he gathered information about the market, bought large numbers of shares and then sold them when their price rose.
But it eventually became more complicated than that. In fact, SAC systematically attempted to receive and trade on inside information.
By the late 90s, SAC was finding it more difficult to profit from short-term trading, and Cohen sensed that things needed to be turned up a notch.
Until that point, his traders were unaware of the industries or companies whose shares they were trading. In response, Cohen started to hire
traders with a “fundamental edge,” that is, traders with deep knowledge, expertise or personal connections in a particular industry.
SAC wanted people who knew and would reveal valuable intelligence - in other words, inside information.
This Steve Cohen documentary is based on Black Edge book by Sheelah Kolhatkar.

[@pedrowahlberg7875]

Fascinating! A 275 million “win” resulted in over a billion in fines. I don’t think they will ever be able to take him down at this point. Great video. Thanks!

[@bad_money]

Thanks for watching!

[@SpaceTimeTurtle]

With inside information, even a monkey can become a millionaire. Steve Cohen's real genius appears to be knowing how to dodge legal consequences for himself. Great video. :):)

[@Bledi838]

He learned while working at Goldman Sachs. All Crooks on Wall St come out of Goldman mainly,......is the school of King Solomon.

[@saivamsikrishnaposani7157]

No, he is a true great stock picker . He made a few grey area trades, but he is one of the goats

[@kresokreso4635]

This channel is on path bo become something GREAT!

[@ianbanks2844]

Oh I am so surprised to find out about rampant criminality in the world of finance . Who could ever believe it ?

[@Slide61]

Why didn't Martoma flip? It's obvious. There is an account waiting for him in the Cayman Islands.

[@Bledi838]

True 💯%.

[@tessiepinkman]

Your videos are of extremely high quality, and you really deserve sooo many more subscribers! I can't wait to see you explode in popularity. It will happen, the question is just "When?" Keep going! You're doing everything right!

[@bad_money]

Thank you so much, I truly appreciate your support, it means much more than numbers to me 🙏

[@pradhuman6998]

Keep the content flowing and great video as always

[@bad_money]

Thank you so much!

[@faebalina7786]

The way some people just waltz into high end jobs in finance is so suspicious

[@oscaraguilera4172]

what a video, always appreciate your high quality editing and formatting!

[@bad_money]

Thank you so much, always appreciate the support 🙏

[@ameliasmith8383]

How about a Pelosi video?

[@SpaceCowboy5634]

Man never stop uploading it's just a matter of time before you blow up, love from India your content inspires me

[@bad_money]

Absolutely grateful for this amazing support. Sending love to all my viewers from India as well 🙏

[@AlAl-kr8ej]

Keep up the great content, the subs and watch time will come

[@bad_money]

Thank you!

[@lialbrown1116]

The quality of the video content is astonishing.

[@albertokoopman2818]

this is the guy billions is bassed on

[@timlies3627]

Only in America

[@Bledi838]

Nope....Everywhere where USA has reached his tentacles the same kind of Corruption happens.....this is the Law of Moses.....done by the children of MOSES....he who brought the 10 commandments from god to people....and taught different laws to his children for the goyim....

[@JohnathanDHill]

it's so much corruption and foul play in the world that it becomes too much to wrap my head around. seems like the world is run by* the amoral and maintained by the powerless just a constant way the game is played, I doubt this will change anytime in my life time.

[@Bledi838]

It is all done by only a small group....the chosen people of God.....children of Moses.....

[@JohnathanDHill]

@@Bledi838 just asking - are you saying this with proof? Or regurgitating a conspiracy theory you believe?

[@Bledi838]

​@@JohnathanDHillnot only them but many others also....they are the main group.....but you must be either unread or naive to not understand what is going on...or you are one of them or on the group of thieves....and play the stupid.

[@IxXReaperXxI]

really nice! please continue

[@bad_money]

Thank you! Good stuff coming

[@IxXReaperXxI]

@@bad_money looking forward to it

[@samir6047]

another reason he kinda got away with it, is his AIPAC contributions

[@gouvass]

Great video, but you could have provided the source of the videos (movie names, show names etc)

[@Sirius-me5zy]

The king of insider trading

[@mishmohd]

I’m at minute 7 and waiting for the blackmail

[@kokop1107]

Amazing video!

[@bad_money]

Thank you!!

[@wagnerp1213]

Regarless this dude is king. And aquired the mets in his journey . He even has some type of tax named after him i beleive from a newspaper acticle.

[@charlesgale4257]

Is this new I swear I saw this a couple days ago?

[@justinschexnayder8485]

This fills in the American greed gap nicely!

[@kevinbimariga3895]

You mean jews?

[@dragxito136]

Did you shared this video?

[@bad_money]

Not really

[@MinifigNewsguy]

Need to do a better read on copy writing. When you write literally you’ll read literally. And sometimes what’s written doesn’t sound right.

[@abisheck-go3nj]

How you edit ur thumbnail

[@justinschexnayder8485]

Nail clippers

[@Nuclear_CxNT_Potato]

As a braves fan I completely agree lol.

[@qwaszxerdfcvtyghvb]

Aaa Haaa, this is where the series BILLIONS got their story from ... what i heard here is exactly what i watched in BILLIONS. Bobby 'Axe' = Seteve Cohen One difference is Boby was a Christian while Steve is a Jew which is more logical 😅. I think in the next seasof BILLIONS Boby will become a Congressman fulfilling the real life story of Steve Cohen.

[@tpeterson9140]

i wont watch this since i already know who Steve is but damn that thumbnail almost wants me to lol its epic

[@gcg8187]

Steve cohen is a stud bro

[@Nuclear_CxNT_Potato]

You make better videos than Jake Conman Tran

[@bad_money]

Jake used to be my favorite KZbinr, he actually inspired me to start this channel. Until he turned into whatever he is now haha. So thank you so much I strive to learn more and do better with every video 🙏

[@Nuclear_CxNT_Potato]

@@bad_money you know good cops are often inspired by horrible villains

[@bad_money]

@@Nuclear_CxNT_Potato you might wanna tune in for the next video then 😉

[@saivamsikrishnaposani7157]

He is one of the goats maybe he made a few grey area trades but he is a great stock picker also insider trading is completely subjective that is there is no clear law saying what is insider trading . you get peices of information from different sources and then you analyze those pieces and come up with a good thesis with a catalyst and made a good trade this is generally how the industry works and saying out of these what generally is insider trading is hard But there are some instances where you can say for example information coming companies executives or board of directors now this is clearly insider trading but if it is someone not a companies direct employee but somehow knows something about the company but it is not public then sec can even open a insider trading case on this one now this is subjective

[@alr9967]

There is nothing subjective about him.

[@freeplax17]

Gangster

[@Michaelkeal-p7n]

He is jooo What do you expect 😂