Hedge fund executive Steve Cohen deactivated his Twitter account after his family reportedly began receiving threats in the midst of the Wall Street controversy surrounding GameStop stock trading.
ESPN reported that Cohen, the co-founder and chief executive of the Stamford-headquartered Point72 Asset Management, stepped away from Twitter on Friday night after his hedge fund provided $750 million to Melvin Capital Management, a hedge fund that faced financial peril when it bet heavily against GameStop, a low-performing stock that was pumped up to historic highs by individual investors belong to a Reddit forum.
Last Tuesday, Cohen responded to the growing anger by GameStop supporters against the hedge funds that tried and failed to stop the stock”™s upward motion by tweeting, “Rough crowd on Twitter tonight. Hey stock jockeys, keep bringing it.”
According to the financial news site Benzinga, Cohen”™s hedge fund reportedly lost 15% this year due to the unexpected spike in GameStop shares. Cohen also engaged in a Twitter feud with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who accused Cohen of using his influence to seek trading restrictions on GameStop after the stock began to take off.
Cohen, a Greenwich resident, had primarily used his Twitter account, which had more than 200,000 followers, for playful conversations with fans of the New York Mets, which he acquired last September in a $2.5 billion transaction.
“I’ve really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement issued on Saturday.
“So I’m going to take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that. I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best in baseball. Bottom line is that this week’s events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a championship team on the field.”
