Klotz pointed out that Cohen’s desk had seven monitors on it. His Microsoft Outlook messages appeared on the far-left one, behind multiple other screens, further increasing the likelihood that he never saw the Dell message. He would have had to “turn to the far left of his seven screens, minimize one or two computer programs, scroll down his e-mails, double-click into the ‘2nd hand read’ e-mail to open it, read down three chains of forwards to read the ‘2nd hand read’ e-mail, before issuing an order to sell shares of Dell.” And all of this would have taken place in less than half a minute.
Klotz was essentially saying that Cohen, the most successful trader of his generation, was winging it every day. Maybe he read a critical e-mail; maybe he didn’t. Who knew? Cohen lived in a swamp of information so deep that there was no way to prove that any particular e-mail was read, let alone acted upon. There was no method to what he did; it was all improvisation.
via When the Feds Went After the Hedge-Fund Legend Steven A. Cohen – The New Yorker
