Enron created calls that gave, for instance, someone the right to buy gas under certain conditions. That was one kind of derivative. There were many others—with names like swaps, options, puts, and forwards—that revolved around the idea that natural gas could be reduced to its financial terms. It’s almost impossible to overstate the radical change that this required in the gas industry. But if Enron could be at the center of all this—and wasn’t that always the plan?—it stood to make a ton of money.
