Steve Cohen Net Worth [2022 Updated Review]

If you’ve been following the world of finance, you may have heard of Steve Cohen, an American hedge fund manager, billionaire, and philanthropist.

If you’ve ever wondered what Steve Cohen’s net worth is or how how he came to be one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world, you should stick around.

In this article, we take a closer look at the founder of SAC Capital Advisors and Point72 Asset Management, who’s also the inspiration for Bobby Axelrod, a leading character on Showtime’s hit show Billions. (This is the latest high-profile individual we will be taking a look at after Bernard Arnault and Tom Bilyeu, among others).

Before I start…

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online check out my recommendation below.

It’s helped me earn over $300k in the last 12 months alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online

(This is a 100% free training)

Table of Contents

Steve’s Early Life

Steven A. Cohen, the third of eight children, was born in 1956 in Great Neck, New York. His father was a dress manufacturer and his mother was a homemaker and piano teacher.

Steve Cohen liked poker as a high school student, and was often betting his own money in tournaments. He credits the game with teaching him the art of taking risks, a trait that would later put him on the path towards success in finance.

Education

Steve Cohen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1978 with a degree in Economics.

Cohen’s Family Life

Cohen married his first wife, Patricia Finke, in 1979 before their divorce in 2009. He had two children with Patricia.

Steve Cohen is married to Alexandra Garcia. Cohen met her, a single mother of Puerto Rican descent, through a dating service in 1992.

They live in Greenwich, Connecticut (I should mention that Cohen has multiple homes). Cohen has four children with Alexandra Garcia.

Steve Cohen’s journey

Let’s take a look at how Steven Cohen’s net worth grew to $14 billion (according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index) in a span of few decades.

Gruntal & Co.

After graduating, Steven Cohen’s first job was working as a junior trader for a boutique investment bank called Gruntal & Co. This was in 1978.

By impressing his superiors, Cohen climbed the ladder in the organization pretty fast and by 1984, he was managing a trading group within the company.

During his tenure with Gruntal & Co., Cohen routinely generated $100,000 a day for the firm and he built substantial personal wealth in the process.

SAC Capital Advisors

He left Gruntal in 1992 and started a hedge fund called SAC Capital Advisors with $25 million, much of it his own money. In 1999, SAC traded 20 million shares per day with 2000 being the year it recorded its largest return of 73.4 percent before fees.

Although it had to shut down in 2016, SAC Capital Advisors was one of the most successful hedge funds ever. In 2010, it was embroiled in an insider trading investigation launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The court found SAC Capital Advisors guilty of the charges in 2013 but it officially closed in 2016.

Point72 Asset Management

Steve was banned from managing other people’s money after the scandal for two years. In 2018, Steven Cohen founded Point72 Asset Management.

The $1.6 billion hedge fund was allowed to manage outside capital that year.

Rescuing Melvin Capital During the GameStop Short Squeeze

In January 2021, when retail investors ganged up to invest in GameStop, Cohen’s Point72 had invested in Melvin Capital, one of the hedge funds that had shorted the stock. Point72 lost 15% because Melvin Capital was hemorrhaging and in desperate need of a cash infusion to stay solvent.

Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Point72 bailed Melvin out with $2.7 billion in emergency funding.

Cohen denied rumors that his involvement with the short squeeze would affect his spending on the Mets.

Big Losses Along the Way

Although Steve has been quite successful in his career, it hasn’t been entirely rosy. He has made a series of major losses worth mentioning.

For example, a series of multimillion-dollar long positions taken throughout the 2000s on pharmaceutical companies like ImClone Systems and Human Genome Sciences proved to be bad investments and costly to his portfolio.

Then there was legal trouble for Steve Cohen in 2008 because his fund, SAC had accumulated a $700 million long position in pharmaceuticals Elan and Wyeth. They were in joint development of a drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. When the companies announced the disappointing result of their second phase of clinical trials, both stocks crumbled and SAC felt the pinch.

Insider trading scandal

One of the things people know about Cohen was the insider trading case that led to the closure of SAC Capital Advisors and a ban on him managing other people’s money for a couple of months. The investigation began in 2010, and in 2013, SAC Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to the insider trading charge and paid $1.8 billion in penalties. The fund was shut in 2016.

Although that was the big one, Steven Cohen has found himself in the crosshairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for insider trading charges before. In 1985, the SEC was suspicious of his bet that RCA and GE would merge, which later happened.

The insider trading case was concerning information about Elan and Wyeth clinical trials being released before they were available to the public and being used to advise Cohen to sell out the position. One of the employees was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. Cohen himself was never charged.

Owning the New York Mets

Many rich people invest in sports franchises for financial and sentimental reasons. We’ve seen that with Mark Cuban owning the Dallas Mavericks. Well, Steven Cohen has followed the same path.

In 2012, Cohen bought an 8% stake in the New York Mets baseball team from the Wilpon and Katz families. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mets lost $200 million and in 2020 Steve Cohen finally accomplished his dream of owning the New York Mets. It meant so much to him because he is a New York native.

To make it happen, he had to pay about $2.5 billion in December, beating out a bid from Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez. According to Bloomberg News, currently, the billionaire owns 95% of the New York Mets.

In 2012, Steve Cohen lost a bid to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers to a group headed by Guggenheim Partners and Magic Johnson.

Cohen the Art Connoisseur

New York Mets Cohen owns one of the most valuable art collections in the world valued at $1 billion.

He has spent a considerable amount on the art collection. Among his valued pieces are Koons’s Rabbit, Picasso’s Le Rêve, and Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death. He also owns paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, as well as contemporary pieces by Jeff Koons and Gerhard Richter. He was even once the proud owner of an Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong which he later auctioned off for a whopping $47.5 million in 2015.

Achievements

Steven Cohen has achieved most of what he set out to do in life and in business. If you ask him, he is happy to have fulfilled his dream of becoming the owner of the New York Mets (he also became the richest owner in baseball history).

Steve Cohen made the list of Forbes Billionaires 2020 and The Forbes 400 2019.

He was Forbes magazine’s The Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Manager 2018 and was ranked 94th on the TIME magazine list of the most influential people in 2007

Cohen also prides himself in owning one of the most valuable art collections in the world valued at more than $1 billion. Among his valued pieces are Koons’s Rabbit, Picasso’s Le Rêve, and Hirst’s among others.

Cohen is one of the three richest hedge fund managers. The other two are Jim Simons and Ray Dalio.

Charity

Through the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, he gave $50 million to the New York Museum of Modern Art. Steven Cohen has also committed $275 million to the Cohen Veterans Network, founded for mental health centers for veterans and their families throughout the nation.

The foundation gave a grant of over $100,000 to the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science in 2014. New York Museum of Modern Art announced in 2017 that MoMA’s largest contiguous gallery will be called the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions.

Conclusion

Although this piece is about the Steven Cohen net worth, you can’t help but notice that Steven Cohen is a multi-faceted man because he is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, businessperson, investor, Trader, and hedge fund manager.

Steve Cohen’s journey is an inspiration to many people because he is self-made. He is the embodiment of risk-taking, diversifying income streams, and positioning yourself perfectly in a dynamic world of opportunities.

His ability to pick himself up has stood out to be his greatest strength as he remains focused on his goal. His is the story of a New York city native who beat the odds to be successful and accumulate a massive net worth. He is an opportunistic guy who has taught us how to succeed not only in finance, but also in life.

Before you leave

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online check out my recommendation below.

It’s helped me earn over $300k in the last 12 months alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online

(This is a 100% free training)

David Fortune

David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.

Go here to see the best business to start in 2024