One thing that's not being mentioned in these stories: at least at it's height, SAC trading (reportedly) represented several percentage points of NYSE / NASDAQ

One thing that's not being mentioned in these stories: at least at it's height, SAC trading (reportedly) represented several percentage points of NYSE / NASDAQ volume on an average day (which is huge considering their AUM and the total number of organizations trading). The allegation that they were essentially an organized insider trading scheme is pretty spectacular given that scale. (Correction: 3% of NYSE, 1% of NASDAQ: http://www.vault.com/company-profiles/hedge-funds/sac-capital-advisors,-lp.aspx http://www.vault.com/company-profiles/hedge-funds/sac-capita...)