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Steve Cohen, the billionaire founder of US hedge fund Point72, is stepping back from trading to focus on running the firm he founded a decade ago.
Cohen is “taking a break from trading his own book and he feels he can have a greater impact by focusing on running the firm, driving strategic initiatives, and mentoring and coaching to the next generation of talent,” Point72 said on Tuesday.
Cohen, who is also owner of the New York Mets baseball team, will remain co-chief investment officer of the hedge fund alongside Harry Schwefel. The firm managed just over $35bn and had more than 2,800 employees around the world as of the beginning of July.
Cohen founded Point72 after his previous firm SAC Capital pleaded guilty to insider trading and paid $1.8bn in fines. The US Securities and Exchange Commission banned him from managing other investors’ money for two years.
Since its launch, Point72 has become an investing behemoth in the top tier of so-called multi-manager hedge funds, competing with rivals such as Izzy Englander’s Millennium and Ken Griffin’s Citadel.
Unlike a traditional hedge fund that might trade one or two strategies in one asset class, Point72 has hundreds of investment staff across 185 teams around the world, focusing on a variety of trading strategies in equities, macro and computer-driven trading.
Point72 has enjoyed a strong run of performance. The hedge fund is up 10 per cent this year to the end of August, said people who have seen the numbers. It has also grown rapidly, almost doubling in size since 2021, when it managed $20bn.
A person familiar with the matter said that while Cohen was stepping away from trading, he could return to manage a portfolio if he changed his mind in the future.
“There’s huge value in having Steve as an impactful mentor for our investment professionals; he’s been doing this for 40 years and he’s seen a lot,” the company added.
Point72 has also explored voluntarily returning profits to investors for the first time, which could come after the end of the year, although the plans could change, said a person familiar with the matter. The firm has had preliminary discussions with investors about this possibility in order to help plan how to redeploy capital.
Large hedge funds often consider returning capital to investors voluntarily to prevent their funds getting too big too quickly, as this can negatively affect performance.
Aside from Wall Street, Cohen has also become a fixture of New York’s sports scene. He purchased the Mets in 2020 and has recently sought to get approval for a proposed multibillion-dollar casino next to the baseball team’s Citi Field stadium.
The news of Cohen’s decision was first reported by Bloomberg.