They were a band of outsiders unable to get jobs with New York's gilded financial establishment. They would go on to build the world's multitrillion-dollar oil market, reaping unimaginable riches while bringing the economy to its knees. Meet the self-anointed kings of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the place where global oil prices are set to this day. In some ways, they are everything you would expect them to be: a secretive, members-only club of men and women who live lavish lifestyles; cavort with politicians, strippers, and celebrities; and blissfully jack up oil prices while profiting off the misery of the working class. In other ways, they are nothing you can imagine: many come from working-class families themselves. The progeny of Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants who escaped war-torn Europe, they take pride in flagrantly spurning Wall Street. Under the thumb of an all-powerful international oil cartel, the energy market had long eluded the grasp of America's hungry capitalists. Neither the oil royalty of Houston nor the titans of Wall Street had ever succeeded in fully wresting away control.
But facing extinction, the rough-and - tumble traders of this tribe-led by the reluctant son of a produce merchant - went after Big Oil and won, creating the world's first free oil market and minting billions across decades of treachery and glory. Their stunning journey from poverty to prosperity belies the brutal and violent history that is their legacy. This is the real-life story both Washington and Wall Street don't want you to read.