By Britt Erica Tunick
Illustration by Balint Zsako
Steve Cohen became one of the world's top art collectors when, in 2007, he paid $8 million for a decaying shark submerged in a tank of formaldehyde. Created by the notorious British artist Damien Hirst, the shark's high price shocked the critics as a symbol of how much the market had become captive to crass materialism.
If anyone seemed the perfect buyer for such a piece, it was surely Cohen—something of a notorious figure himself. SAC Capital Advisors founder Cohen's take-no-prisoners trading approach has long been controversial; he is said to routinely control as much as 3% of trading on the New York Stock Exchange and 1% of the Nasdaq Stock Market. Likewise, Cohen's relentless drive for an information edge, his ruthlessness toward employees, arrogance toward investors and outlandish lifestyle in an industry where conspicuous consumption is a given have turned the...
