What really built modern oil markets- genius traders, clever tech, or a tight-knit community willing to reinvent the rules? In this wide-ranging conversation, Colin Bryce, co-author of The Rivers of Money: Social and Economic History of Modern Oil Trading, pulls back the curtain on the people, places, and decisions that shaped Brent, birthed ICE, and turned a niche business into a global engine of liquidity.
From Morgan Stanley’s early experiments and Enron Online’s single-dealer shock, to the Platts–ICE symbiosis and today’s entrenched market infrastructure, Bryce traces how innovation happens, and why it’s harder now. He argues trading has evolved from a solo craft to a team sport, and warns that “speed” adds little social value, and makes the case for client-centric liquidity and real-world relationships in an age obsessed with algorithms. Greg and Colin also look east—China, India, Dubai—and ask whether the next reinvention will come from new centres of gravity or from rebuilding community in the West.
Guest: Colin Bryce
Book: The Rivers of Money: Social and Economic History of Modern Oil Trading
