The article aims to analyze how the financial instruments and structures allowed the most solid and representative sector of the United States of America to generate an unprecedented crisis. The origins of the 2008 housing crisis go back to the creation and diffusion of mortgage backed securities at the Salomon Brothers table in the 1970s, through the incorporation of subprime loans over the last 30 years in order to monetize bonds and even repackaging unpaid mortgages through debt-backed securities, popularly known as CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligation). While the world was reporting and commenting on the losses involving the crisis, which in 2008 had already surpassed the value of US $ 1 trillion, it was possible to see that a group of investors, looking at the indicators, ended up betting against the system and won. Funds such as Scion Capital and Front Point Partners have been tracking for years the quality of what was being marketed at banks and resold countless times. The decline in the quality of mortgage loans was evident and a credit derivative, in particular the credit default swap, was used as insurance against defaulting institutions and securities that were not part of the portfolio of investor assets. The swap contracts ensured time and protection for investors who, over the course of the crisis, waited for their millions of return as they saw the collapse of giants like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, as well as the collapse of thousands of people without jobs and without housing.