Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An essential exposé of our times—a work that reveals the deep rot in our financial system . . . Everyone should read this book.”—David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times and The Economist • Finalist for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

The hedge fund industry changed Wall Street. Its pioneers didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not. In hedge fund circles, Steven A. Cohen was revered as one of the greatest traders who ever lived. But that image was shattered when his fund, SAC Capital, became the target of a seven-year government investigation. Prosecutors labeled SAC a “magnet for market cheaters” whose culture encouraged the relentless pursuit of “edge”—and even “black edge,” which is inside information—and the firm was ultimately indicted and pleaded guilty to charges related to a vast insider trading scheme. Cohen, himself, however, was never charged. Black Edge is a riveting legal thriller that raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of high finance and how they have reshaped the economy.

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

“A modern version of Moby-Dick, with wiretaps rather than harpoons.”—Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

“If you liked James B. Stewart’s Den of Thieves, Sheelah Kolhatkar’s thrilling Black Edge should be next on your reading list.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Excellent.”—The Economist

“A true-life thriller with Shakespearian stakes . . . Her chilling account of a blighted industry is as mesmerizing as a human story as it is as a financial one.”—Fortune

“A tour de force of groundbreaking reporting and brilliant storytelling.”—Jeffrey Toobin, New York Times bestselling author of American Heiress