This is what ex Nymex traders believe according to the book “The Asylum” by Leah McGrath Goodman
From 13mins 40seconds Max Keiser interviews the author of “The Asylum”
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The book The Asylum documents the rise and the fall of the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) probably the most barbaric, toughest and unorthodox trading environment ever created by man.
The book tells the story from the beginning when NYMEX traded potato futures right up to mid 2010 and the peak oil price of 140Dollars a barrell.
The book documents the activities that went on in the trading pits both legal and illegal as well as covering some of the most outrageous behaviour of some of America’s richest men.
The Asylum is thick with the atmosphere of the trading pits from the very start with countless quotes and anecdotes from the traders, CEOs, clerks and their competitors.
The book does not go into too much detail of the actual process of trading futures but it documents the personalities, the motivations and the vices of some of the NYMEX’s most influencial players.
One of the most interesting sections of the book covers NYMEX’s competition with ICE and the transformation from a pit based exchange (the trading scenes in the film Trading Places were filmed in the NYMEX pits) to a screen/internet based exchange and all the feelings of resentment and loss that the traders felt during the transition.
Although trading through screens has massively increased trading volumes it is argued that traders are less accountable then they were before with person to person trades and many of the traders in the book feel that the oil marker is now manipulated by unknowns sitting behind a computer screen in god knows what country serving god knows what interest.
Some of the traders in the book say they believe that Goldman Sachs could be influencing the price of oil. Prices can now change by over 10% in one day for no apparent reason which is something that did not happen in the days of person to person pit trading.
Some of the traders believe that certain organisations are taking advantage of anonmynity to drive up prices purely for speculative reasons.
Whatever the case maybe “The Asylum” is a truly riveting read from page one and is a must read for anyone with the remotest interest in the stock market or futures trading.
I would even go as far as to say, even the traders on the NYMEX will be reading this book to remind them of the old times and to reminisce about the fortunes that the NYMEX made them.
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