 The problem started, according to Kennedy, in 1991, when just a few years after oil futures began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Goldman Sachs made an argument to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that Wall Street dealers who put down big bets on oil should be considered legitimate hedgers and granted an exemption from regulatory limits on their trades.The commission granted an exemption that ultimately allowed Goldman Sachs to process billions of dollars in speculative oil trades.Other exemptions followed, and "by 2008, eight investment banks accounted for 32% of the total oil futures market".