Hollywood has never avoided the topic of big money, investing, and trading. In such movies, stock exchange players are always shown as cynical people with dubious moral values. But there is still something to learn from such characters.
We decided to compile a list of the best movies for traders about investments, and stock exchanges that will help you understand how the world of big money works. Let’s get started!
Margin Call (2011)
Usually, when people think of top trading movies about the 2008 global crisis, they recall ‘The Big Short.’ The movie by Adam McKay has undoubted trump cards in the form of a star cast and an Oscar.
But the serious movie ‘Margin Call’ by J. C. Chandor considered this topic several years earlier. The movie takes place over 24 hours in September 2008, shortly before the global financial crisis.
One of the employees of a large investment bank, using algorithms that calculate the situation in the financial market, sees all the prerequisites for its crash. The next day, the employee gets laid off but manages to convey information to his colleagues. Now they need to decide what to do with the ‘bomb’ they have in their hands.
Wall Street (1987)
Wall Street is considered one of the best films for traders. The classic movie by Oliver Stone tells about budding broker Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, who dreams of working with his idol — the legendary trader Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas).
Once Fox manages to meet with Gekko, and he takes him under his wing, offering to spy on competitors. Fox gets the money he dreamed of, but one day he realizes that Gekko’s business methods are becoming unacceptable even for him. Then the student decides to beat his teacher in his own field.
Stone said that he copied the image of Gekko from investors and financiers like Carl Icahn and Michael Milen and dedicated the movie to his father. The latter worked as a broker during the Great Depression.
A quarter of a century later, the director shot a sequel to Wall Street with Shia LaBeouf, but everyone preferred to give up on this movie as soon as possible.
The Big Short (2015)
Perhaps, together with ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ this is one of the best films about trading and money of the last ten years, if not more.
Adam McKay, mainly famous for the cult comedy in certain circles ‘Anchorman’, suddenly shot a satire on bankers, investors, traders, and everyone whose carelessness led to the 2008 crisis — and, of course, about those who managed to make money on it.
McKay details what led to the biggest banking crisis since the Great Depression. And to accurately reach the audience, he asks the stars to explain the financial terms used in the movie. For example, Margot Robbie, lying in the bathroom, explains what mortgage-backed securities are.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
70-year-old Martin Scorsese shot a three-hour epic about the life of stock exchange players based on the biography of the same name of Jordan Belfort, played in the movie by Leonardo DiCaprio.
One of the best movies for traders shows in the dirtiest details how big money can affect people, dealing with them 24 hours a day. Let’s put it this way, compared to The Wolf of Wall Street, Wall Street by Oliver Stone is just a childish game.
Trading Places (1983)
Dan Aykroyd plays a successful commodity broker who is forced to switch places with a street swindler played by Eddie Murphy due to a bet between his superiors.
The purpose of the experiment is to test whether the character played by Murphy can become a successful broker without education and experience. At the same time, the character of Aykroyd is deprived of all means to earn money.
The movie’s last 15-20 minutes are devoted to trading, but they are so realistic that in 2010 the movie was used as an example of illegal insider trading to lobby for a law prohibiting it.
Boiler Room (2000)
Seth, the owner of a clandestine casino, earns good money but wants to lead a more respectable kind of life. One day, his cousin offers him an easy way to get rich — getting a job at a brokerage firm.
At first, everything goes like clockwork, but over time, Seth realizes that the company where he joined is not so different from his clandestine casino.
If you always wanted to understand how the Pump and Dump scheme works, then be sure to pay attention to one of Ben Younger’s best films about trading.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
It is the only movie in our selection of top trading movies where the desire to make money is shown as something positive.
Will Smith plays the salesperson who spent all the family’s savings on the opportunity to sell X-ray machines. Business isn’t doing very good, and Smith’s character ends up on the street penniless, with his little son.
Then the would-be entrepreneur decides, at any cost, to undertake an unpaid internship in a brokerage firm, as a result of which only one out of 20 candidates will get a job.
Conclusion
Today, we’ve considered the best trading movies about investing every beginner definitely should watch! Of course, before engaging in cryptocurrency trading, it’s crucial to acquire in-depth technical skills. But use these movies as a first confident step towards the world of investing!
Have you seen these movies? Did you like them? Feel free to share your thoughts as well as your best trading movies in the comments below!
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