Ryan Cohen: the “meme king” who sparked a frenzy

Ryan Cohen was credited with saving a clapped-out videogames retailer with little more than a knack for whipping up a social-media storm. But his latest intervention has backfired.

Ryan Cohen
(Image credit: © Sipa US / Alamy)

The extraordinary rise and fall of Bed Bath & Beyond, the latest hyped US “meme stock”, has had terrible real-world consequences – the firm’s CFO, Gustavo Arnal, was found dead at the foot of his Manhattan building last week, having apparently jumped. His death is a reminder that “there’s more on the line” than a stock price, says The New York Times.

But the episode has also shone a spotlight on the activities of “meme baron” Ryan Cohen (pictured) – a billionaire investor with a large following of amateur traders and a frightening ability to move markets due to the unshakeable faith of some of his acolytes.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.