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Organization and Business	12 Months Ended
Organization and Business	Dec. 31, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization and Business	Organization and Business Cowen Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation formed in 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, sales and trading and prime brokerage services through its two business segments: alternative investment and broker-dealer. The Company's alternative investment segment, includes hedge funds, private equity structures, registered investment companies and listed vehicles. The Company's broker-dealer segment offers research, sales and trading and investment banking services to companies and institutional investor clients primarily in the healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, information and technology services, consumer, aerospace and defense, industrials, real estate investment trusts ("REITs"), energy and transportation sectors. Cowen's broker-dealer segment also offers a full-service suite of prime brokerage services.