The business world has been graced with a lot of big budget movies which will go down in history as a perfect merger of the business and entertainment world.
One of such movies arguably is the “Wall Street” movie which portrayed the business world in a great light. However, there are a few other movies, low-budget, but with perfect representation of the business world as they made up for the low-budget nature and absence of A-list celebrities with attention to details and of course, a great plot.
According to Investopedia, here are the 5 Must Watch Films and Documentaries for Investment Bankers:
1. “Billion Dollar Day”
This 30-minute 1986 BBC documentary focuses on one day in the lives of three forex traders – a currency dealer working for Barclays Bank in London, a New York-based speculator and a Chemical Bank trader in Hong Kong. Filmed simultaneously in all three locations, the film focuses on the tactics used by all three. Two rely more on hunches more than economic analysis. They are constantly wondering what other traders are doing around the world and trying to anticipate and plan for every possible maneuver to gain any edge possible. The third is more conservative and is more of a momentum trader, reacting to industry movements rather than attempting to predict them. By the end of the day, the three dealers trade currencies worth over $1 billion and together make a profit of more than $150,000.
2. “Floored”
This 2009 documentary takes viewers onto the Chicago futures trading floor. The film looks into how the shift to the digital age is affecting the day-to-day lives of traders. Cigar-smoking loudmouths swearing and battling on the trading floor are being replaced by quiet, anonymous traders dealing online. Many of the traders making over $10,000 per day battling in the trading pits, relying on cliques formed by what part of town they were from, struggle to adjust to the new way of business, often tragically. “Floored” provides insight into trading and the futures markets and how the Internet is changing the world of finance.
3. “Too Big to Fail”
This made-for-TV docudrama by Oscar-winning director Curtis Hanson adapts Andrew Ross Sorkin’s best-selling book about the 2008 financial crisis, particularly the decision to let Lehman Brothers fail. Just weeks before the nation is thrust into disaster, financial leaders finally see the writing on the wall and scramble to put the pieces of a broken system back together. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson battles between Wall Street’s elite and the government while trying to avoid the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. Adding a little Hollywood flair to a somewhat drab tale, “Too Big to Fail” features the star power of William Hurt, Edward Asner, Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub and James Woods.
4. “Trader”
This documentary film shows legendary hedge fund trader Paul Tudor Jones dealing with the daily ups and downs of the job. Jones’ quirky behavior and personality and his unique thoughts make for an entertaining and inspirational film. Jones is as superstitious as he is intelligent. When he feels he may need a little extra luck, he slips on his lucky pair of sneakers that were once owned by Bruce Willis. While a bit off the wall, much of his analysis and many of his predictions made in the movie proved true in hindsight. Individual investors and traders can learn from the valuable insight of “Trader.”
5. “Boiler Room”
This little-known drama released at the end of the dot-com bubble tells the story of an ambitious college dropout going to work in the boiler room of a small stock brokerage. He quickly becomes entrenched in the firm’s culture of greed and corruption. The higher he climbs up the ladder, the deeper he sinks into a downward spiral, breaking the law to stay on top. Much of the plotline of this fast-paced movie coincides with actual events leading up to the financial collapse of 2008.
