Rigged

by Ben Mezrich

From the author who brought you the massive NY Times bestseller Bringing Down The House, this is the startling, rags-to-riches story of an Italian-American kid from the streets of Brooklyn who claws his way into the wild, frenetic world of the oil exchange.

After conquering the hallowed halls of Harvard Business School, he enters the testosterone-laced warrens of the Merc Exchange, the asylum-like oil exchange located in Lower Manhattan. A place where billions of dollars trade hands every week, the Merc is like a casino on crack, where former garbage men become millionaires overnight, where fistfights break out on the trading floor and men have been known bring prostitutes as dates to company dinners.

This ordinary kid has traded Brooklyn for the gold-lined hotel palaces of Dubai. He keeps company on the decks of private yachts in Monte Carlo- teeming with half-naked girls flown in by Saudi Sheiks and makes deals in the dangerous back alleys of Beijing.

But the Merc is just a starting place. Taken under the wing of another young gun and partnering with a mysterious young Muslim, he embarks on a dangerous adventure to revolutionize the oil trading industry- and along with it, the world.

Rigged is the explicit, exclusive, true story behind the headlines that dominate the world stage...

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Biography, Finance, History, Audiobook, Economics

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Ben Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.

With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.

Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sales pitch on this book caught my eye cause I used to intern at a commodities trading company after my sophmore year in college, so I was curious to learn more about commodities trading.

The book itself was well written, but lacked a little more excitement. Though I burned through the book in a week, it didn't have quite the excitement as I felt reading Monkey Business (About Ibanking) or Liars Poker (Securities Trading).

I did learn some cool things about what effects energy prices and from the descriptions of Dubai, man, I now believe that Dubai is 'heaven on earth'

The best part of the book was really the epilogue and the interview with the real star. Some great comments about what is happening with the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DMC) and a brief explanation of what is going on in the energy markets, particularly crude, right now.

I would give the book 3-3.5 stars. The author is a good writer, but if he had more funny parts, the read would have been more entertaining.

It would be a worthwhile read if you do want to trade commodities. It would have given me a good heads up before my intern had it been available back in 1998.

[Sharon Beers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Street smart kid from Brooklyn and then Harvard enters the wild and woolly world of the Merc Exchange (with his bible of Milton Friedman's creed under his arm) where billions of dollars change hands every week and fistfights occur on the storied trading floor. His journey from there encompasses palaces and back alleys while he endeavors to conquer the oil trading world. He helps establish the Dubai Mercantile Exchange while also dancing with, and away from, dangerous Middle East contacts. Published in early 2007, it glorifies risk and the young honchos who embraced it, as they helped bring about the financial debacle and the devastating reckoning in 2008, 2009, 2010.

[Chazzle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is more promise than delivery. Mezrich writes in an interesting style, but at bottom, I don't really believe what the protagonist accomplished actually will change the world. On the other hand, all things Dubai really are pretty fascinating, so the book wasn't all bad, either.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a terrific story. It's certainly plausible, if only just. Giving it the benefit of the doubt that it's more fact than fiction is fairly, but if you can swallow your disbelief, it obviously makes the tale just that much more fascinating.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Saidi Mdala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rigged: Ben Mezrich

So six hours later – two sittings – I put down Rigged. Dusted! I am absolutely stunned by the excursion I have just taken. From a club in Manhattan at three-thirty in the ungodly hours of the day, to Merrill Lynch floors the next day (six months earlier), and a few weeks later we are at the Mercantile Stock Exchange in Chicago, and then in a dramatic twist of events to Dubai (oh Dubai, a whole world where every place and culture on the continent is amply represented – perhaps the weirdest place in the world), back the New York, then off to Europe – the UK, Switzerland – and then Beijing (China), back to Chicago and off to Dubai again, to what becomes the climax of the book.

I have just travelled the world first class (flying Emirates!), seen places I never thought existed – Dubai, inevitably the greatest highlight – and I have not popped out a nickel. The magic of reading!

There is everything you may want in this book, whatever your age. Depending on what you are looking for: business, adventure, kick ass entrepreneurship ideas, futuristic thinking and development such as only Dubai can illustrate; meeting incredibly driven young people with larger than life ideas and enough grit to follow through on those crazy ideas until they become reality that translates into insane business outcomes. You witness business meeting with political clout and will to change the world. Then there are the usual elements of speed, efficiency, perseverance, insecurity, deception, greed, sabotage, winning (eventually) and capitulation for the late adopters.

This is a fascinating story – stranger than fiction – where the unusual happens at every turn. It unravels in a tale of two young people from two unlikely worlds for partnership (the West and Arabia) who meet in the Emirates to hatch a truly game changing idea for a most improbable business venture in the most inconceivable environment: a stock exchange in a Sharia territory – smack in the heart of Arabia a sworn enemy of interest! What more? Forget the interest/sharia dilemma; the exchange will deal in the world’s most tradable commodity – oil, a commodity that has different definitions and importance to both parties involved.

How this idea even makes into formal boardrooms is the reason you must read this book and in the process find out how two young people: an Italian kid from the ghettos of Brooklyn who uses everything in the proverbial six inches between his ears to get into Oxford, Harvard Business School and then the world of money meets his counterpart – an orphan who grows under the tutelage and guardianship of a filthy rich uncle – a sheikh with his name to a multibillion business and an heir to one of the oldest Bedouin dynasties in the United Arab Emirates. This wealth, obviously, having been the other kid’s passport to access elite education in Geneva, Cambridge and New York University.

The contrasts do not with the backgrounds of poverty and opulence. The two kids hail from two camps naturally polarized by their most basic beliefs of life and cultural prejudices. One is from the West, the other from the East. One from want and another from excess. But once the two go-getters meet, a relationship is ignited that leverages everything they have acquired in their short lives – both are in their early twenties – and with unwaveringly laser focused visions manage to do the unthinkable with the support of the most unimaginable deal makers. Each is inspired by his circumstances, a big hairy audacious goal and an idol in their respective camps.

It is a great story of opportunities and those who do everything with their lives to capitalise on them.

Did I mention that this more riveting as watching a Bond movie (minus the gunshots, spinning flying cars and exploding planes – but flying cars and exquisite planes are there)? Did I also mention that, unlike a Bond movie, this is a true story? And this is the part that gets me thinking … is this story something that is only possible in America and Dubai? Warren Buffet always insists that he cannot imagine what happened to him – wild success, the billions and all – happening anywhere else but in America. Jim Rohn turned the same idea into a verse or punch line. I never really thought much about it until I read this book. What if they are right?

Then I remember that billionaire Strive Masiyiwa (yes! Forbes just confirmed him the first billionaire in Zimbabwe) is neither American, nor did he make his money in America. The same goes for Ali Baba’s Jack Ma. Both men now worth a lot and not a dollar swindled and not a cent inherited. And heck, a few decades ago Dubai was an unattractive expanse of sands but today boasts, among many other things, a hotel room that can set you back $24,000.00 (yes a little over a quarter of a million pula!) for spending just one night there!

So as I conclude this review, I am smiling from ear to ear as this idea just occurred to me this morning after finishing reading Rigged. What would it take for a young African woman or man, whatever her/his circumstances, to have the kind of entrepreneurship mindset that sets her or him on to such daring economic adventures as the two young men in this book? At the risk of sounding like a carpenter with only a hammer and a nail as a solution for every problem; I think it is this one thing: READING!

My work involves lots of writing, creating learning solutions, coaching, practicing my public speaking and perpetual research to keep myself and my work relevant, but I am still able to read and finish a good book of 300 pages in a day or two. So I am thinking: an average secondary school student has a cool eight hours free (outside school, chores and six to eight hours of sleep) every weekday (primary school students have more time and energy!).

What would become of him/her if s/he committed just half of that free time to read a good book every single day or every two days. That’s like 150 to 300 books a year! Imagine a kid who reads that much books from standard five through to form 5 or 6! What becomes of that kid as s/he steps into varsity? What amount of opportunities would this habit place at her/his disposal? Food for thought – students and parents, alike!

And one last thing! Ben Mezrich has written over a dozen books several of them based on true stories, including The Accidental Billionaires – the story of the making of Facebook later (rendered into the 2010 movie ‘The Social Network’) and Bringing Down the House an intriguing adventure about MIT math whizkids (made into the 2008 movie: ’21’). These books are as entertaining as the movies we watch, but there is more in a non-fiction (even fiction) success story such as these, biographies and autobiographies when you read them from a book. They are filled with insane inspiration, wisdom, knowledge, smarts, experience of what works and what doesn’t and then there is this one awesome extra: vocabulary!

Vocabulary, said one great man, is a way of ‘seeing’. If you have a big vocabulary, guess what happens to your seeing of opportunities and earning capacity?

“The more words you learn and use, the better you think and the better results you get in everything you do.” The reverse is true for a small vocabulary. “If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future,” explains Mr Rohn.

[J.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the acknowledgements, Ben Mezrich claims that this is the best book he has ever written. I would not agree as I enjoyed some of his other books more, such as "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," which was made into the movie, "21," and "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal," which was made into a movie as well ("The Social Network").

Mezrich has a niche in nonfiction: his books are about (mostly male) intellectuals who go to Ivy League or quasi-Ivy League schools, who create companies, systems, or new ideas that make them fabulously wealthy with all its accoutrements (women, nightclubs, and lots of cash). The plot for this book is about American David Russo, a Harvard grad who works for the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) or Merc, and Khaled Abdul-Aziz, a Muslim educated in the best schools in Europe and related to the Dubai ruling family, who have the idea to build a commodities exchange in Dubai. This unlikely partnership--created a year after the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 09.11.2001--must persuade the Merc board and other traders the benefits of bringing capitalism to the heart of the Middle East.
This book was interesting because I learned a little about the Merc, which traded commodities, predominately oil, and the beautiful city of Dubai (probably the closest I will ever come to visiting that city is through this book and my imagination).

I believe the book is worth reading, although the majority of it leads up to whether the Exchange will be built. I felt the book may have been written prematurely. I want to know how it ends; perhaps, that is left for Rigged II.

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true story about a young Ivy league kid who goes to work on the New York Mercantile Exchange. He then is instrumental in setting up an Exchange in Dubai. I learned a lot about the Mercantile Exchange. The only thing I knew about it before reading this book was from the movie Trading Places. Seems to be a sophisticated casino. Also learned about Dubai. Sadly enough I knew only that it was in the Mideast. Sounds like an incredible place that will be very trendy and popular in the years to come. I had never read anything by Ben Mezrich before. Although there was no suprises in this book it was a quick and easy read with an interesting story line. I liked it but didn't love it.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on my way home for Thanksgiving and finished it before I landed. It's about this bright kid who got his MBA from Harvard and somehow found himself as the VP for Strategy at the New York Merchantile Exchange a few months later. He teamed up with a counterpart in Dubai to create an Oil Exchange, the first of its kind in the Middle East. The exchange is suppossed to bring transparency and accountability to middle-eastern oil prices which could have HUGE implications for global stability.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rigged" follows the same non-fiction novel style as "Ugly Americans" and "Bringing Down the House". The book tells the story of a recent Harvard grad and his start at the New York Mercantile Exchange and focuses on the trading of oil. The title is a little misleading as it implies some sort of indictment of big oil or some other conspiracy.

Overall an enterntaining read that goes by pretty quickly. I've you've read his other books and enjoyed them - you'll like this as well.

[Jon Samuelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is awesome. I love everything he does, terrific non-fiction. Read this in 4 days. Very interesting and I do not even like anything having to do with financial trading, or oil. But that is what this is about bringing an exchange to the country of Dubai. True story, with names changed.

[Will W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast and fun, Mizrich does it again. The kind of shit this guy pulls off makes me think of some of the students at Davis High. Some people are simply on a different level intellectually. Different level? Different planet.

[Lewis de Seife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging exploits of Dave Russo, an HBS graduate, and his role in getting NYMEX to start an oil exchange in Dubai.

Not a lot of insights into the workings of the NYMEX, but more of a story about a driven Brooklyn Italian American and how he overcame long odds to get the project approved.

[Steven Kaminski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty compelling book that looks at the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) that has contracts for most of the oil that travels through the world. Through the eyes of David Russo who was hired right out of business school he eventually becomes a vice president for the exchange. He also and this is where it gets bold coordinates with a government official to set up an exchange in Dubai closer to where the actual oil is. Through his eyes you can see where the business is shifting and why Dubai is becoming such a commercial hub in the Middle East...

[Jim Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of oil and gas books and love Dubai, this was mix of the two so 5 stars for me.

[Sasha Kurup · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a name that reads like clickbait, the book content isn't far from it. Subtly sexist. Less subtly racist and islamophobic.
This book in it's very intent to show how racism and racial stereotypes were over come to achieve the primary goal, reinforces some of them. This peaks in the middle of the book in a cringe-worthy scene where the american protagonist randomly starts talking about 9/11 to his new emirate business partner, and the emirate man goes on to APOLOGISE for 9/11 and has to explain how he condemns it. The man had to CLARIFY he doesn't support terrorism and has to apologise for terrorists (why? because he happens to be of the same religion or race?). It's literally him apologising for being a muslim and from the middle east. This sours everything, and even when multiple american characters are awestruck seeing the magnificent infrastructure of dubai, it's more of a supercilious, over the top who-would've-thought-big-buildings-could-exist-in-the-middle-east kind of astonishment rather than just awe at amazing feats of architecture. Oh, the protagonist does feel 'embarrased', ever so slightlly, at having these racist thoughts, but it's not a big deal.
As for the sexism, the most prominent female character( his girlfriend) is never mentioned in her own right, what she does isn't mentioned. All you read her do is shop off his money, look lovely, crib about his long work hours and take care of him when he's sick. Vaguely trophy-like. Apart from her and a secretary all the other female characters in the book are either groupies, prostitutes or honey traps.
An entitled bigotted american's view of dubai. A lesser shade of Donald Trump.

[Robert Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating & suspenseful story that will hold you attention from start to finish. David Russo (in fact John D'Agostino) has graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School right after 9/11 and jobs are scarce. He accepts a job offer from Merrill Lynch doing grunt work just to pay his rent & groceries. Then he & his girlfriend Serena are at the National Italian American Heritage Institute dinner where the It. Am. Man of the year is Anthony Giovanni, David's hero. He meets him there & eventually becomes one of his "kids" at the NY Mercantile Exchange where the current commodity is oil. Because of his degree, his mentor, and the belief that he thinks himself better than them, he has a hard time being accepted by the rough & tumble traders on the floor or by the board members. All except his immediate boss Nick Reston are from Italian & Jewish ghettos in Brooklyn or Staten Island. He gains respect, is sent to Dubai in place of Reston and makes friends with a young Bedouin Arab prince who sells him on an idea that they together then have to sell to the NYMEX board & the religious arbiters of the Arab world. Terrific read for non fiction.

[Leah Pomposo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. Less scholarly than expected... well, even less biographical than expected... more thriller/national geographic episode of "Locked Abroad" without anyone actually getting arrested... but you get my jist... nonetheless, a page turner... i could not put the book down... after i stopped myself from expecting more out of the book than what it was... i started enjoying it... there was something about lavish, extravagant Dubai kept me going... or was it my fascination for the seemingly incorruptible Khaled that egged me on... either way... Mezrich did his job... he exposed us all to a world we would have never experienced in our lifetimes... the NYMEX and Dubai (more specifically the juxtaposition between the Arab Street and the futuristic Middle East)... now, if someone would just write a follow up story and tell me all about Khaled... that would really make my day... kidding :-)

[Christoffer Betting · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiography about the journey of an ambitious, and young, commodity trader was somewhat interesting. According to me, the book would have been more insightful and dynamic if the book had been a biography. This would have ensured that the account was actual, and not fictive and somewhat unreal. Thus, I began to question whether the description of the so-called ‘wild nights’ was exaggerated in order to create a more appealing story. However, the epilogue, written by the protagonist himself, recovers some of this lost validity. I found his comments about the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and the energy markets to be particular appealing and fascinating because of their relevance to today’s world. Overall, I give the book 4 stars because I liked the book, though I would have preferred it to be a biography.

[Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for those that have ambitions of changing the world themselves, or making lots of money. Especially a good read when in need of an injection of hope that large scale change is possible, albeit with some luck and strategic, wealthy supporters.

Full review available here: http://damianfuller.com/2013/04/19/book-review-rigged/

The book has been registered and released on BookCrossing.com at the Wat Chan Royal Development project!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11847454

[Marnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The oil exchange is a fascinating topic I knew nothing about, but that didn't seem to matter. The entertainment value that Mezrich puts into his books is what makes them...even though the ending of this one was a little ho hum. This book tells the rags to riches story of a bunch of guys from Queens & Brooklyn who make it big trading oil on the Merc Exchange in NYC, specifically following main character David Russo, a guy in his early 20's who helps develop an oil exchange in Dubai by seducing skeptics with the lavish excess Dubai has to offer.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read - gave it 4 stars because it sucked me in quickly, read like beach blanket fiction and made the industry that I work in completely accessible to anyone. And considering they have sold the movie rights to it, I suspect people who are NOT in my industry would enjoy the true story as well. It basically had the rags to riches theme, along with the underdog vs the establishment theme, along with the sex and money and intrigue themes that capture the imagination and get the blood racing. Would recommend this for someone who's looking for a good page turner.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

ignorant, inappropriate in every way -- particularly in his portrayal and treatment of women and any culture other than w-h-i-t-e. Absurd. Let me count the number of times he referred to the "brown" or "chocolate" hands of the Khaled character. It was shockingly ignorant, given how much press it got.
Of course, the plot also drags you along the whole time, so you grit through it just to see what happens.

so wrong.

[Gil Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a highly readable and interesting book a-la-Mezrich but I couldn't help but think that it was the UAE government that commissioned this book rather than it being a spontaneous production by Mezrich.

However, even if fabricated, it was awesome and makes me want to move to Dubai. There are hundreds of pages devoted to describing in great detail the beauty, strength, and grandeur of Dubai.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, well-written book. Overall, a fast read. Beginning is a little slow if you know anything about the Wall St/ trading world since he breaks it down and explains the basics. But interesting- a true story about this guy who changed the NYMEX and its role in the global marketplace when he was 25 yrs old or something ridiculous.

[Tim O'brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as "invigorating" as the other Mesrich books...... but that being said, better than anything else I saw in the Hudson News at SeaTac....interesting story, but hard to relate, as I am not as up to speed on Mercantile Exchange as other Mesrick books and/or Dubai...... worthy choice on plane ride back from Wisconsin.... Wisconsin to Denver to Seattle, finished it up....

[Brandon Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though Ben Mezrich seems like a complete douche bag to me, I actually find his books to keep me pretty captivated. I think probably because he always writes about young ambitious kids that change the world basically, and maybe i like to think that one day i'll be one of those. Anyways, they are quick, easy reads and they keep me entertained.

[Eric Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoyed this author's other books previously, and was curious to read this one since I went to school with John D'Agostino - but this book is terrible. When I got to the end, I thought there had been a mistake because nothing interesting or worthy of writing a book about had happened, so I assumed it was just build up... and then the thing ends.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this fast pace novel. It is unlike Ben Mezrich other works in the fact that this is a fictional account of the origination of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange. There are facts interlaced with fiction. It's a very entertaining read and I will definitely read more from Mr. Mezrich in the future.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is focused on the inner workings of the commodities exchange in New York. It is a pretty interesting read, and very quick! Very good for those working in FS or interested in the corrupt nature of America.