Leon Cooperman Says Market Correction Could Start `Very Soon'

(Bloomberg) -- Leon Cooperman, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Omega Advisors, says a market correction could start “very soon.”

Cooperman, who’s known for his bullish stock picks, said any number of events could prompt markets to fall. "North Korea, a disappointing earnings report, anything," he said Tuesday at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference in New York. "We can have a 5 to 8 percent correction anytime."

The S&P 500 Index has, for the most part, been on the rise for the past eight years, returning 328 percent since March 3, 2009.

Omega, which managed $3.6 billion in August, had been plagued with large redemptions since 2015 when Cooperman told investors that regulators had subpoenaed Omega for information about trading in certain securities. Earlier this year his firm settled the insider trading case and agreed to pay a $4.9 million fine. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The son of a plumber, Cooperman has long celebrated investing. He bootstrapped his way from the South Bronx to become one of the deans of the hedge fund industry, founding Omega Advisors in 1991 after a 25-year career at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.