Steve Cohen Is Back, and This Time He’s Turning Wall Street into a 3 A.M. Waffle House Brawl

Steve Cohen. The name alone has the power to make Wall Street veterans reach for their wallets and make sure their debit card is still there. Whether it’s insider trading scandals or questionable bailout moves, Cohen’s career has been as subtle as a bull in a china shop. And now, he’s back in the headlines, backing a startup stock exchange that wants to keep Wall Street caffeinated 23 hours a day, five days a week. “I’ll take chaos for $200 Alex.”

Let’s rewind the tape, shall we? In case you forgot, Cohen’s S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to insider trading charges back in 2013 and coughed up $1.8 billion in penalties (although he got away scott free as far as jail time goes). 

(Source: PBS)

Click the fast forward button to January 2021, when the meme-stock craze turned the market into a chaotic free-for-all. GameStop and AMC became rallying cries for retail investors, who banded together on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets to take on the hedge fund elites. Cohen’s Point72 hedge fund stepped into the fray with a $750 million lifeline for Melvin Capital, which had been caught shorting GameStop at the exact wrong time. 

Ken Griffin’s Citadel also poured in $2 billion to stabilize Melvin, but the damage was done. The move wasn’t exactly a PR win for Cohen. Redditors, who saw the bailout as proof of the system being rigged in favor of hedge funds, turned their ire on him. It got so heated that Cohen eventually deactivated his Twitter account after receiving relentless backlash, including threats.

And now? Cohen’s Point72 Ventures is helping bankroll 24X National Exchange, a new stock exchange that just won SEC approval to trade 23 hours a day starting in 2025. The goal apparently, is to let traders respond to news at all hours, whether it’s the middle of the day or when the rest of us are asleep dreaming about our next failed stock pick.

The 24X exchange is slated to launch in late 2025. Initially, it’ll trade from 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET on weekdays, but if all goes well, overnight sessions will eventually extend trading hours to 8:00 p.m. Sunday through 7:00 p.m. Friday. Think of it as Wall Street’s answer to that one diner in town that’s always open (except less pancakes and more price volatility).

Proponents of the idea argue that extended trading hours will help traders (especially those outside the U.S.) react to breaking news in real-time. Dmitri Galinov, CEO of 24X, put it bluntly: “Traders are most at risk when the market is closed.” In other words, no one likes waking up to a surprise 10% flash crash because a CEO decided to announce their resignation at midnight (I can’t say he doesn’t have a point).

Critics, however, aren’t too fond of the idea. Benjamin Schiffrin from consumer advocacy group Better Markets says retail investors trading during off-hours will face fewer buyers, more volatility, and worse prices. Basically, you’ll only get a deal if your idea of a good price is “bad but slightly less bad than expected.”

This isn’t just about giving traders more hours to test their luck… it’s about fundamentally shifting the game. Institutional investors will dominate overnight trading (because, of course, they need more advantages), while retail investors frantically try to keep up with the scraps. For retail traders, this might feel less like an opportunity and more like getting invited to a potluck where the pros brought caviar, and you’re stuck with stale chips. And let’s be real… this probably won’t level the playing field, despite what the press releases say. But hey, at least it’ll keep things “interesting” (read: stressful) for everyone.

Of course, Cohen thrives in chaos. If anyone’s going to make money off this, it’s him. The man could probably short the market on Christmas morning and come out richer. But for the rest of us? Well, 23-hour trading might just be Wall Street’s latest way of saying, “Good luck keeping up.” If you need me, I’ll be staring at my portfolio at 3 a.m., wondering why I ever thought this was a good idea.

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