 Gordon Gekkos "Greed is good" speech was inspired by a similar  speech given by Ivan Boesky (qv) at the University of Californias  commencement ceremony in 1986. Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur  who paid a $100 million penalty to the SEC to settle insider trading  charges later that same year. In his speech, Boesky said "Greed is  all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is  healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."