Fireside with Steven Cohen, CEO, Point 72 | Global Alts Miami 2025

let's go downstairs to Steve was standing by with Mets owner Steve Cohen Steve Cohen Steve Cohen Steve Cohen Steve Cohen Steve Cohen the founder and CEO of 72 that firm raising 10 billion three decades is one of wall Street's most successful hedge fund managers the owner of the New York Mets and the League's new heavy hitter ju so to the Mets want to get something that starts with a seven if not an eight $765 million just a stretch for me you know something different do you like talking more about markets or talking about art if

I go out with somebody in business and they happen to be a collector we spend the first 30 minutes on Art the amount of effort motivation passion that's required to do extraordinary things don't happen by accident they happen because you're determined thank you very much all right helloo thanks for all being here I'm John Lei co-owner of the New York Islanders and uh a New York Mets fan as well and we're going to divide our conversation into the Mets something about 72 Steve's U on AI and then some wrapup comments on the markets but first

of all Steve congrats on a great season um I remember meeting you when you first bought the team in the middle of Co which I thought took a lot of guts and you went out stood in front of uh City Field on seway and handed out literally hundreds if not thousands of bags for folks f as they drove by in their cars because you remember you couldn't have that face-to-face comment and somebody yelled you're my uncle Steve and it's stuck so congrats on that first five years of ownership what are the things that you've learned

on that journey to today yeah I mean it's amazing it's only been uh this will be my fifth season I call them dog years especially early I mean we had some amazing things go the first year everything went wrong but uh you know listen I had never been in sports and and uh you know listen you need patience I mean it's so easy to go spend money and and uh you know and I'm I'm I'm really thrilled that um you know I have the right management team in place and we're much more methodical and and

thoughtful about what we do um and listen I mean listen I enjoy talking to the fans I mean um you know it's you know when you sit behind screens your whole life and then all of a sudden you're thrust into to the you know like a public Arena when you're involved with sports it's totally a different experience and uh so I think that you know the fans have gotten to know me got to know who I am um you know I tell it straight you know I don't pull any punches and and just let them

you know chips fall where they may yeah I think your uh performance if you will at on Saturday's FanFest which was very heralded by the New York Press for your honesty when it came to players in the future and what your plans were um what do you see in terms of thinking about the Mets in the context of um your day job is there a correlation between that because when I go to your box which by the way is the best dinner party in New York 81 times a year there's such an Eclectic group of

people it's a free game so anybody will come you know but how does that all s of come together in a mosaic for you was was that part of your I doubt it but was that part of your decision- making process that this was a way to bring all these different worlds together in one Focus place I think that just happens organically I mean um you know I've been a lot of different subcultures Financial World art World philanthropy you know Sports is another subculture and New York is you know essentially this you know media Capital

world and um you know people want to they want to go a game and and hang out with the owner and and you know get insight of what's going on and behind the scenes and so um you know it tends to attract you know a lot of different people I actually am tired of my sweep being crowded and I actually go and sit in the seats by The Dugout and enjoy that a lot more than entertaining you know during the game because I want to watch the game well I think your secret weapon in life

is your wife Alex because she was smart enough to get a separate box and what I love about what Alex does is that every game she goes into the upper deck at City Field and she picks out fans to come sit with her and she has probably been your best thing you ever done in your life if I look at it she's she's a special lady and and the players love her the fans love her um and um you know she brings a real authenticity to you know what we're doing and and she loves it

you know it's a family thing right so we get to do something together um you know she now you know it's not Steve con owns the Mets it's St Alex con owns the Mets and I love that and one of the players who was prominently uh featured who signed a record contract when he was interviewed was that a guy named Juan stto Juan stto I heard those of you who don't follow Sports he signed a $765 million deal with I think some additional components to it for the next 15 years but the stto family made

a point of saying that their decision was largely based on the fact that you and Alex run the Mets as a family yeah I still I've never really asked Juan why you why did you join the Mets right I mean you obviously he was at the Yankees and and he has Aaron judge behind him you know great hitter and um and he decided to come to the Mets and you know one day I'll get the the full answer and and and it might have been the families um um you know we're a little bit maybe

a little bit more focused on treating the parents and treating the uh the the you know the kids and the grandparents and Trea you know get them a great experience at the Mets and sort of my philosop well it's my philosophy my hedge fund too you know I mean we want to treat people as people and they're human beings and you know just like the way I'd want to be treated I want to do it right back so speaking of hedge fund 72 today has 18 offices around the world 3,000 employees and over 37 billion

in assets under management The Wall Street Journal had a headline saying Mets owner Steve con had an even better year off the field Flagship fund up 19% you've built an incredible investment business over the past three decades what do you think has been the key to your success and longevity in that market yeah I think uh well listen I started the business now I'm considered part of a group called multi managers we have 200 portfolio managers working for us around the world and um you know I think it's I think it it's my philosophy on

you know how to treat people you know how to I want to bring in the best talent I can I want to support them I want to I want them have they don't owe me their life you know as long as they're at the firm I want them to have an incredible experience I want if they leave I want them to be ambassadors for the firm I want them to say great things and it's been my philosophy and those are my principles and I operate out of those and so far so good we've been business

30 this will be a 33rd year you know and then obviously I had I was running a unit at a at a company brokage firm before that for about uh 14 years so the decision speaking of headlines the decision last year that you made to stopped trading got a lot of press can you tell us what led to that decision and yeah how you're spending your time now other than trying to win a World Series for the Mets I'm spending my time doing this okay I mean I'm on the I call a rubber ch chicken

circuit and and um so um yeah so I'm out you know out and about um um so uh yeah I mean I decided to stop trading because I had this Vision I'm I'm 68 and and um had this vision of being 70 still behind screens I was like that doesn't make sense you know and I I felt it was time to was I have so many employees we have you know my firm has gotten to the point where I I was Al CEO of the firm so I was you know running the Mets CEO of

the firm and trading and that was a lot to do and uh this I mean i' been able to fill my time interacting with our people at the firm at the Mets much more than if you're sitting in front of screens all day it's hard to do something else I I describe it as like being immersed in a video game and it's so immersive that you just forget what's going on around you by the way a lot of these questions came to me via text from people who are interested in your business and one of

them is asking um you launched a private credit business can you tell us more about that and why you're launching that business now yeah listen I mean you know obviously that's not a new thought in the world there's plenty of credit businesses out there um but uh you know I I can my my view is that this firm is more than just a hedge fund it can track the best talent wherever it is and I'm here to support them and try to figure out how to grow and how partner and how to grow the stuff

their businesses that they want to grow and just happen you know I I met somebody that I thought was um you know really someone I could partner with and you know so why Define myself as just a hedge fund you know a multi-manager I can do more than that every day we're confronted with something new on AI the markets this week have been very volatile down and up on it stocks an AI do yesterday yeah not so good right how how is your firm thinking about AI longitudinally in other words there's the day-to-day choppiness but

what I think the folks again asking me questions they ask you have asked what's your the Steve con view on AI in the future listen I I this every once in a while there there are technology changes that are you know sort of uh they're not like one or two year themes I mean this is a 10 to 20 year theme it's going to affect everybody and how you know they conduct their lives how they do their business um and and this is a massive shift and so um my view is you know we're in

the still in the first second inning of a you know something that's going to be trans transformational for for the economy in the world and so I mean to me that that spells just like the inter when the internet first became something and the cloud became you know something that was important this the same thing and the and and the best the next great companies and even companies that are out there today public companies private companies um I mean these are going to be the next great companies and and um this is so such a

dramatic important shift um that to ignore it and and uh uh I think it's a mistake and so my view is you know we run a hedge fund it tends to be a little bit shorter term and and and but this because of the what I believe is the the duration of of what this investment could be that you know why not set up a separate entity that uh um invest with a little bit more uh time frame and duration and U so you know I think it's you know something that you know you're going

to you're going to read about it every day because it's coming and it's coming quick you named your fund after an AI theorist named Alan Turing it's called the turion fund my concern about the future of AI is the journey to that place and the valuations that at least people in the media are reading seem stratospheric do you see at some point other than the Chinese thing yesterday do you see sort of a choppy Road in other words is it a hockey stick just to use an analogy that I like or is it going to

have some chop to it I'm trying to think of a baseball analogy um so um yeah listen I mean great companies are going to be expensive there's no way around that you know a great house is going to be expensive a great piece of art is going to be expensive and and and these you know there there going to be a lot of winners here and and uh um and it's going to be episodic it's not going to go in a straight line I mean there'll be advances and then then it goes quiet and you

know there'll be new companies that'll be able to use these tools and you start hearing about them and then another big Advance comes along and and uh and that's how it's going to go and and uh there going to be moments when people are going to doubt it like yesterday and there's a lot of people who own these stocks who perhaps don't know what they own and why they own it other than they know they should own some AI Securities and so you get a lot of misinformation you know on the it was the back

page of the post there were basically like some crazy headline today on China versus the US and and uh and so um you know there's a lot of hype and and a lot of uh but you know people are going to to care about this and and you know so you have to really understand this stuff and I'm lucky enough to have somebody who's running this fund who really understands this stuff called who really has the background to understand what this technology platform shift is all about and there's a lot of people out there who

talk who haven't done the work and they can misinform investors and misinform the public and we saw a little bit of that yesterday you know our viewers what happened with deep seek is actually bullish because it advances the move to artificial super intelligence and that's coming it's coming quick so I'm going to shift to markets because you have made a lot of headlines on CNBC over the years the few times you've been on TV I don't want to make another headline here huh no headlines I'm trying not to but well there's another another young man

from Queens named Donald Trump since the two of us are from Long Island Queens who my father-in-law used to sit right next to president Trump at the ball game so yeah cool little sidelight that's a side note so Trump Administration where do you think we are from an economic perspective as we move forward in the new Administration listen I mean you know politics matters and you know obviously he's come in you know and it's totally a different program than what you know obviously Biden was implementing and and you know I mean we know what we

know what he's going to do it's about tariffs it's about immigration um it's about energy right you know drill baby drill and and um um it's about you know unleashing America and so you know there there's a lot there's not deregulation there's a lot to like um the irony is and this is interesting that the policies that he's implementing if he implements them tariffs specifically tariffs in Immigration will actually slow growth not increased growth in 2025 tffs are are ATT are attacks and that's going to slow consumer spending and you know immigration um if you

slow immigration it it slows the the the uh supply of workers and so you know economy we think is going to grow first half 2 and a half% unemployment rates stay around 4142 then the second half we actually think things are going to slow and that we think growth will slow maybe to one and a half percent and and the and then on top of that we think the employment rate will go down because the the the flow of immigration supply of labor is is is being constrained and so we think it's going to be

hard for the FED to hit their inflation targets we think inflation will stay sticky around 2.6% 2.5 2.7 with their goal being two and on top of that an employment rate that's coming down while growth is slowing and so I don't think that's a great backdrop in 2025 I would expect the markets to top over the next couple months if it hasn't already topped already and I I would expect the second half to be a little tougher you talked a lot about Labor and talent um one of the questions from an hedge fund competitor of

yours that I got was the war for talent in the hedge fund space continues to be unre fierce how is that playing out from your perspective how has it impacted Recruitment and ion efforts in the hedge fund industry yeah listen uh you know there's some a lot of firms competing for great talent and you know no different than baseball or hockey right great talent gets gets paid a big price and um you know we do a lot of development so you know we're not depending on on attracting people from other firms we develop great talent

we have all sorts of Developmental program starting when you know people are kids are coming out of school we call it the academy we have PM development programs we have analyst development programs and you know we're really trying to train the next great investor and just like baseball I mean the baseball analogy it's cheaper to develop your uh players from within your organization as opposed to buying them the same thing's true in the hedge fund world and we'll we'll participate in both Arenas but my preference is to develop what given what has gone on with

two and baseball too by the way so so you actually you went into the marketplace once and bought some players and then you brought on an incredible talent in David Sterns focusing back on the Mets and how it relates to the hedge fund world so how what did you learn from that that applies to you moving forward as you try to go for a world championship in other words you you had a couple of guys who came in and didn't work out and you retrenched and you didn't think you would get to where you are

as quickly as you have and we've had our conversations sounds like you're ahead of your plan so what what happened there like what's the Mosaic of running a team whether it's a hedge fund or a baseball team yes it takes talent but how do you discern that that's you you competed for David Sterns you won David Sterns who you speak highly of as the general manager baseball operations guy so how does that all come together well um you know I think we've been making progress even before David came along um and um you know it's

really important in almost anything you do not to focus on the outcome but focus on the process and if you're approving the process the results come later or come they come at some point and so that's what I've been focused on I mean baseball teams I mean I'm sure hockey teams are no different they're small businesses and you know they know there aren't that many players but they're complicated right I mean you've got te you know you got technology you've got you know you've got training in health care you know training training your players you've

got analytics you've got you know Player Development you've got scouting I mean it it's pretty complicated and then so how do you pull that whole thing together and you know the idea no different than the hedge fund is to hire the best and brightest and then you know obviously hold them accountable and and uh so it's a work in progress I mean the Mets are not where I want them to be yet but we're a lot further along than we used to be and uh and you know it we'll we'll get there and we'll get

there because we're putting the right people in place and they know how to do it and they've done it before and you know track records do matter and so you know those those type of people I look for and then you know ask good questions as an owner like you have all this going on I mean I I can't can't be involved in every part of the Mets organization but what I can do is ask good questions and try to figure out what we're doing well and what we need to improve on and that's no

different at a my hedge fund or any business business and that's what a CEO does and again now more in a macro sense what are you worried about these days how do you think about each and every day what what gets you to hesitate or be thoughtful or what are the things that get you excited when you wake up in the morning yeah listen I jumping out of bed going to it I don't jump out of bed quite you know but um but um yeah I'm excited about you know being engaged in the stuff I'm

engaged in you know and how to make it better and you know how you know learn new things and you know all of a sudden I'm I'm expanding the definition of my hedge fund right I mean you know i' I've gotten involved with the PGA Tour and and you know obviously that that's in a a period of transition um you know I own this New York club in the tiger League uh which happens my team's not doing particularly well but but there's always next year um but um you know so there's always like cool things

to do and just a question of you know what you want to tackle and what what your bandwidth is and you basically apply the same principles I mean they're not different and and so you know the these are principles I I kind of live by and apply them where I can and it holds me in pretty good stad you and I have had a chance to talk about philanthropy in the past and one of the things I found so interesting you're you're committing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars quietly to various causes throughout New

York well now it's not so quiet well you're committing them but you know you don't wave a banner saying I just did that which is nice but here's the point I was going to make which is um you said to me which will stick with me for a long time that yes I love being philanthropic but it's no secret that I lose money on the Mets but the chance to win a world championship in philanthropy I can make a specific group or thousands or maybe even 100 thousand people their lives better their their improved situation

but if I win a world championship not only in New York but across the country there are millions and millions and generations of Mets fans and I wondered how you you know can you give some more detail on how you thought about that because to me Sports the brands have been before the new wave of owners have been really like you said mom and pop undermanaged businesses now these Brands because they're worth billions are getting more attention from Madison Avenue from media Etc well these are still small businesses with big big valuations and it's a

power of sport right I mean no one cares I run a hitch fund no nobody could care less you know the first thing they want to ask me about you going to sign Alonzo you know or you know hey that was great with Juan sto I mean that's what they care about sports has that unifying uh Community you know ability that a lot of things don't but you and Alex had a platform before you bought the Mets how are you and Alex thinking about incorporating philanthropy into that platform for the betterment of because you get

to your point you get a lot more attention Steve than you did five years ago everybody in the room knew who you were but Society RIT large didn't necessarily know who you were unless they watched television so no it's not about getting attention you know it's about I mean you said it and I said it in my first press conference this is an opportunity if the Mets are great to make millions of people happy who F who are just die hard fans and it doesn't like Flint listen we do a lot of Flint we do

a lot of things in a lot of different places true flopy this is a stretch in philanthropy that's how I'm trying to uh justify losing the amount of money I'm losing you know I'm losing you know all right well this is you know I'm trying to make people happy and and and um but I mean it you know like this you know yeah I I took over a club that was like this untar you know kind of tarnished diamond and you know how do I polish it up and and you know with fans that are

everywhere I go especially you know last year I mean we became America's team you know it was like a magical run that we had and and you know so um you know how do I take it and and and go all the way and listen I'm just setting a goal you know a goal to just to accomplish it right I mean to do something that seems harder seems how do you do that and pull it off and there's no guarantee I'm going to pull it off but if I do it's cool you know and i'

like I said I've made millions of people happy well I think everybody in this audience uh who likes the Mets and I know there's a lot of folks from the New York area here this week um they're grateful to you for your stewardship of the team excited for them and us watching you continue to progress and it takes a village like you said it takes a lot of Talent on and off the field to make it happen so uh let's go Mets and let's have a great 2025 thank you Steve for doing this yeah appreciate

it all right thanks everybody [Applause] [Music] [Applause]