Every traders first day at Grey Investment was spend shadowing Grey for the entire day. He was rumoured to hand out $20 bills each time a new hire would ask him something "smart". A ritual that ironically left every new trader completely speechless.
He was a mystery, not only to those who worked for him, but even for the ones that were closest to him. One former assistant described him as "a Donald Trump kind of check book character."
Many who know Mr. Grey personally, describe him as a young man who encountered remarkable early success, and who made no secret of his new found wealth. When Grey arrived at Princeton, he did not seem to come from any sort of wealth. But in his second year on campus, he had a black BMW and a private chauffeur. Everything around him seemed a bit mysterious. Was he related to the former Prime Minister - Charles E. Grey? He was not. But rumours started circulating on campus, making him something of a campus legend.
"He's an enigma. No one knows what's going on inside his head. Which direction he will go." Said Alan Greenberg, a former business partner. "But he's the kind of person that everyone in the room will listen to. He is usually the smartest person in the room. He's always been a strong character." Before adding "He is very black or white. Either he'll love you or he'll hate you."
Mr. Grey would not comment for this article. In a statement by his lawyer Tom Wambsgans, a former United States attorney, Grey denies any wrongdoing.
Mr. Grey is originally from Alameda, Conn., where he grew up in fairly middle-class circumstances. He was born the youngest of four brothers, who all went on to study at Princeton where they played varsity squash. Grey, unlike his fellow students, was not spending his days brooding over books in the library. Instead, he was pursuing his first business foray, precociously pursuing the 80 ies real estate boom. He had discovered the inherent advantage of buying from financially distressed owners and subsequently flipping the houses for a quick profit. The homeowners, who were on the brink of bankruptcy, saw Mr. Grey's predatory scheme as a blessing. "He offered to pay us in cash and we were able to stay in our house as renters. It was like he had been send from god." Said Susanne Woznik, a retired school teacher. Mr. Grey managed to pull off these practices using his charms, leaving the original owners grateful and apparently unaware of having been exploited. On the other hand, Mr. Grey's profile on campus began to rise with his new found wealth. He increasingly became a rare sight on campus. Eventually commuting by plane from his waterfront property in Malibu before dropping out all together.
Jonathan Hammer, a member of the student squash team where Mr. Grey was playing, who is now a judge in Brooklyn, described him as "the poster-boy of the nouveau rich. Arrogant and flamboyant."
Mr. Grey dropped out of Princeton during his second year to start his investment company 'Grey Investment Group'. Tiring of his real estate deals, he preferred to turn his attention to the financial world as a block trader. A form of trading that is particularly difficult, as it involves brokering large amounts of shares, which can be difficult to unload. In an interview with Fox Business, Mr. Grey described his modus operandi as "I know what I know, but I also know what I don't know. Which is equally important. I'm probably in the top three block traders in the US." It seemed to be working and as his bank account swelled, Grey started appearing everywhere. On Fox News, MSNBC, CBS and CNN. He became a TV and Tabloid darling, hailed as the "most eligible bachelor" and "millionaire wunderkind". Grey seemed to make no secret of his wealth. Grey Investment Group boasted revenues of close to a billion dollars. A former employee who wished to remain anonymous, described a very badly tempered Grey, who was enraged that his company, which he fully owns, missed the billion-dollar-mark by 9.3 million dollars. "He wanted to take it off the website. The head of marketing had to convince him to keep it there and in our communication materials. He was angry for two weeks straight."
Grey Investment Group was infamous for being an intense work place. Headquartered in Jacksonville, the building is an imposing austere glass-and-steel structure of varying shades of whites and greys. Grey had become accustomed to commuting by helicopter. From door to door in under twenty minutes. The office was decorated in white stone and grey marble, a cold impersonal atmosphere, except for two colourful Renoir's and a Gauguin from Greys personal collection and the ten foot long aquarium that was rumoured to cost Grey a hundred thousand dollars in maintenance per year.
Grey's office was overlooking the trading floor, its sharp glass walls walling him off from subordinates. He would sit in front of eight massive flat-screen monitors, four Bloomberg screens, flickering in reds and greens the constantly changing numbers. One screen displayed subordinates performance in real time. Sometimes he would storm out of his office, singling out an unwitting trader: "Jackson! You're down 10% this morning. A monkey would do better trades! Get the fuck on it!" He would yell at an unsuspecting trader. Greys sudden outbursts created a muzzled atmosphere on the trading floor and a certain paranoia of who would be next to be yelled at in front of colleagues.
But Christian Grey had two sides. While he could be excessively hard on employees, he could also be very generous, taking younger employees under his wing. He had an eye for spotting and cultivating talent.
There are two types of bankers in the banking world: the silky smooth salesmen who succeed based on wits and charm, and those who persist through bulldog tenacity. Christian Grey is the rare embodiment of both.
Grey encouraged a culture of fierce competition among his traders. A proprietary computer system, known as Orarum, allowed employees to monitor in real time the fund's performance. Employees checked Orarum incessantly. At G.I.G, each new portfolio manager was given a pot of money. The rule was simple: you were either up or you were out. As long as the trades were profitable, employees made a lot of money. The minute they started loosing Greys money, they were out. Prosper or die. To survive in such a competitive environment, one had to be accustomed to gruelling pressure, akin to a professional athlete. But no one worked harder than Grey. He made a personal point to be the first in the office and the last to leave. Rumours circulated that he would sleep on his office floor or didn't sleep at all. Rumours that Grey himself seemed to cultivate.
It was in 2001 that Grey's troubles really began, when he hired a young man named Lee Perkins.
