The Mastermind

You don't just play the game — you own the board. When you commit, you commit completely, and you're good enough that the people around you eventually have to change the rules just to stop you.

In 1955, traders Vincent Kosuga and Sam Siegel bought up nearly the entire supply of onions in Chicago, cornering the market completely. When they dumped their holdings, prices collapsed so violently that Congress passed the Onion Futures Act of 1958 — to this day, the only commodity permanently banned from futures trading in the United States because of what two men did to it.

King of the Barrel is that total, audacious control — captured before the rules caught up with it.