Which markets are they arbing? U.S. stock indices hardly diverge from fair value, and the same goes for U.S. Treasuries.
lately he has been taking big stakes (10%)+ in companies, wtsla and bbi paying off nicely so far. he also branched out into fixed income and other markets lately. other than that he pays for info more than anyone else, you can imagine the calls he gets. above all he has innate skills that very few possess.
Oh yeah, Wall St is such a group of honest boys and girls. They follow the law to a T! Pffffffttttttt.....
Disagree 1st point, Agree 2nd. There are many mutual funds that pay the Street more than he does, yet they still underperform the market, Fidelity Magellan being a great example. The people at SAC are simply smarter. The MacLagan (sp?) report lists the top-paying buyside firms for the sellside, and many come before SAC. Sorry for digressing, but I think it's especially sad when the government tries to criminalize intelligence. I think the new SEC commissioner looks pretty good and will focus upon making the markets more efficient and reliable versus favoring one type of investor over another.
How does he recruit traders? he may be a great trader himself but I think the fund employs 100's of people. If you trade commodities you can hire floor or prop traders or fund traders. But stocks ? market makers ? mutual fund traders ? I can't see how he finds the talent, I think lately they have struggled to keep the performance in line with what they did in the 90's bull run, what's their annual return in the past 5 years? would be interesting to see how much short term trading account for that
haha.. everyone's human. the only real innate skill needed is a long attention span,... like the ability to do a complex puzzle for long hours... days... months.... years... ... but even that skill can be developed.
really? then how come every elite reader isnt a billionaire yet? if these certain skills can be developed, im sure everybody here is eager to get them. its like saying you can develop skills of an nba player, maybe but only select few have the total package to make it. s. cohen was an extraordinary trader before he started doing 'information arbitrage' read some of his bio.