Punctually at 5 o’clock every afternoon, Andy Hall, the world’s highest-paid oil trader, abandons his screens and drives to a studio in Norwalk, on the Connecticut coast, for one hour of ballet practice.

Infamous across the United States for pocketing a bonus of $100 million (£61 million) this year, the man known as the “god of oil traders” is as religious about keeping fit as he is determined to earn an even bigger bonus over the next 12 months.

Feared by rival traders as a “crocodile in the water”, Mr Hall has spoken for the first time since his victory last week against the US Government’s attempt to withhold his $100 million bonus.

“The US Government, understandably, did not want to be seen approving someone earning this kind of money. But I have a contract,” he told The Times. Over recent weeks, the 58-year-old, thin and unshaven British-born Oxford graduate has been pilloried by Washington’s power-brokers for symbolising Wall Street’s greed. His bonus, due to be paid by Citigroup, his employer, was denounced by President Obama’s pay czar, who unsuccessfully urged the bank to keep the $100 million.

Undeterred by the opprobrium, Mr Hall celebrated his divorce last week from Citigroup itself, the owners of Phibro, the veteran trading company owned by the bank since 1998. Phibro’s sale to Occidental for a mere $250 million was, Phibro insiders said, “a steal for Occidental”. Citigroup is judged to have lost its strategic focus.

“The sale of Phibro was a great deal for Oxy,’ Mr Hall said. “They essentially paid book value, the cash in the bank. I am delighted about the new ownership. We plan to grow the business. Phibro's best days are still ahead of it.” He has one thing in common with his new boss, Ray Irani, the chief executive of Occidental: in 2006, Mr Irani earned nearly $450 million.

In 2003, when oil was priced at about $30 a barrel, Mr Hall began betting billions of dollars that prices would rocket. “If you’re long you can’t be wrong,” is his motto. Just before prices rose to a record $147 in July last year, he bailed out, earning Citibank at least $630 million. His accumulated earnings since 2003 are nearly $1 billion. Not surprisingly, he felt entitled to his share of the booty.

But his personal bonanza was a poisoned chalice. Soaring oil prices had helped to tip the world into recession and among the casualties was Citigroup. He derides as “ludicrous” any link between the frenzied oil speculation and the global recession, but others see an irony that Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank, was crushed by debt and saved only by the US Government’s $45 billion injection in return for a 34 per cent stake.

The bankers were cowed but Mr Hall is unsympathetic. “Oil traders work in a whorehouse,” the proud red-tooth capitalist once said. “So don’t try to be an angel in this business.” He added to The Times: “Speculation is not a dirty word. Life is speculative.”

His genius is acknowledged in the trading community. “Andy,” one of his admiring competitors said, “doesn’t speak to people. He distils the salient points out of the essence from reading, which, with hindsight, is brilliantly obvious but hidden by specious and wrong ‘facts’.” No one within that small community doubts that Mr Hall embodies “the perfect combination of immense intellect and off-the-scale commercial brilliance.”

During the bull run between 2003 and 2008, he went with the herd, which was right, and then changed direction. “There’s no point in standing in front of an oncoming train,” he said, selling off his positions.

Mr Hall hopes to disappear from the spotlight. “I hope people lose interest in me. I do not seek publicity,” he said. That is unlikely, especially if oil prices begin to rise, which Mr Hall expects. “I’m reasonably bullish,” he said. “Prices will go up, although it is unlikely we will see anything like the move last year.” If they “shoot out the lights”, he knows that he will be the first trader targeted by politicians.

Rising petrol prices always spark controversy in Congress. Convinced that the producers, oil companies and traders are manipulating the markets, America’s politicians devoted huge effort last year to hearings and investigations about the inability to regulate the world’s two oil markets, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and ICE, a computer market based in London. At the height of speculation last year, the daily trade of crude oil and its products was hundreds of times more than the amount actually consumed. More than $80 billion of new investment fed the frenzy. Based on the erroneous perception of a permanent oil shortage, some politicians demanded that markets be closed and traders arraigned.

Arriving in New York in 1980 as a BP trader, Mr Hall soon shifted to Phibro — replacing the infamous Marc Rich, with whom he continued to trade — and worked alongside Tom O’Malley, another renowned trader. Together, they perfected “The Squeeze”, buying or selling huge amounts of North Sea oil to distort legitimately the market and compel rival traders to seek mercy — for a price. Squeezing oil markets is much harder now. “The market is transparent,” Mr Hall said. “It’s too big for anyone to manipulate.”

He and his wife invest in contemporary paintings. “It’s a buyer’s market for art,” he said. As in oil and minerals, his talent is to sense price movements. “I’m not intending to retire,” he said. He is relying on ballet and an hour every morning in the gym to be ready to earn another $100 million when the next bonanza erupts.

The Squeeze: Oil, Money and Greed in the 21st Century, by Tom Bower, is published this week. HarperPress, £20

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