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Organization and Business	9 Months Ended
Organization and Business	Sep. 30, 2012
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization and Business	Organization and Business Cowen Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation formed on June 1, 2009, is a diversified financial services firm and, together with its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, “Cowen,” “Cowen Group” or the “Company”), provides alternative investment management, investment banking, research, market-making and sales and trading services through its two business segments: alternative investment and broker-dealer. The Company's alternative investment segment includes hedge funds, replication products, mutual funds, managed futures funds, funds of funds, real estate, healthcare royalty funds, cash management services and mortgage advisory services offered primarily under the Ramius name. The broker-dealer segment offers research, brokerage and investment banking services to companies and institutional investor clients primarily in the healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, consumer, aerospace and defense, industrials, real estate investment trusts ("REITs") and alternative energy sectors, primarily under the Cowen name.