Norman Bruce Ream was born in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1844, the son of a farmer. He exhibited a commercial sense, but the Civil War interrupted his ambitions. Wounded twice, he returned home a hero. After some unsuccessful business ventures out west, he went to Chicago in 1871 and became a commission merchant in the Union Stockyards. A few years later, he moved uptown and traded grains and provisions in the pits of the Board of Trade. Money poured in. Indeed, by 1886 he was a millionaire (also married and the father of several children). He started investing in real estate, urban transit companies, railroad stock--and began consolidating and financing enterprises. At century's end, he was traveling to New York City, impressing financiers like J. Pierpont Morgan. Indeed, he helped Morgan put together the U.S. Steel Corporation and the International Harvester Company, served on many boards, and even advised Morgan during the panic of 1907. But life grew turbulent. Public sentiment soured towards Wall Street and the wealthy. This, along with the presumed indiscretions of some of his children, kept his name in the press. He died in 1915, and gradually, his life was forgotten.

A compelling account of how markets really govern themselves, and why they often baffle and outrage outsiders One of the reasons many people believe financial markets are lawless and irrational—and rigged—is that they follow two sets of rules. The official rules, set by law or by the heads of the exchanges, exist alongside the unofficial rules, or floor rules—which are the ones that actually govern. Break the official rules and you may be fined or jailed; break the floor rules and you’ll suffer worse: you will be ostracized. Regulations vary across markets, but the floor rules are remarkably consistent. This book, offering compelling stories of market disturbances in which insider rules played a key role, shows readers, without excessive moralizing, how markets really govern themselves. It is a study of the norms, customs, values, and operating modes of the insiders at the center of the financial markets that trade money, stocks, bonds, futures, and other financial derivatives. The core insiders who rule trading markets are a relatively small group who exert disproportionate influence on financial systems. Mark W. Geiger examines the historical roots of the culture of financial markets, describes the role insiders play in today’s high finance, and suggests where this peculiar, ingrown culture is heading in an era of constant technological change.