'I'm Your Guy'
Cohn, who declined to comment for this story, grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, the son of an electrician who became a real estate developer, and received a bachelor's degree from American University's Kogod School of Business in 1982. He bluffed his way into his first Wall Street job as a trader on Comex, a New York commodities exchange, he said in a 2009 commencement address at the school.
On a day off from a job selling window frames and aluminum siding at the home-products division of United States Steel Corp., Cohn spent a few hours at Comex. He cadged a ride to the airport with a trader, according to the speech. In the taxi, the man said he needed someone to help trade options.
"No problem, I'm your guy," Cohn said.
He was invited to an interview the following Monday and spent the weekend preparing by reading Lawrence G. McMillan's "Options as a Strategic Investment" four times, according to Cohn's account. He got the job.
'Pungency of Fear'
His boss, Charles Federbush, said in an interview that he tried to teach new clerks "not to get emotional." Federbush's brokerage, Volume Investors Corp., was placed into receivership in 1985, and in 1992 he was sentenced to three years' probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy and fraud.
Cohn went off on his own as an independent silver trader on Comex in 1983. Donna Redel, who became the first woman to head the exchange in the early 1990s, said the trading floor smelled like sweat and had "the pungency of fear." Martin Greenberg, who preceded Redel as chairman, said he once choked another colleague over a trade.
"He was tough," Greenberg said of Cohn. "Gary got in with the right people, worked his ass off and used his head."
Redel, who said there was no truth to a tale that she stabbed a colleague with a pencil -- she said she was using her hands defensively and wasn't holding anything -- described Cohn as "firm," "strategic" and "driven."
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