Favorite Wall Street Movies

For my second to final post this year, and given the fact that this holiday weekend is traditionally second only to Christmas night as the biggest movie of the year, I was pleasantly surprised to find that today's Barry Ritholtz blog was about all the best Wall Street movies.  He says he's giving you four flicks but there are really six.  I have seen them all, (own most of them) they are all excellent, ranging everywhere from the slappiest of slapstick comedy (Trading Places) to intense drama of Wall Street excess in Wolf of Wall Street, to the most starkly realistic portrayal of stock fraud (Boiler Room and Wall Street) to a most entertaining and somewhat angry explanation of how greed and corruption in the financial services industry brought on the Great Recession in both The Big Short and Margin Call. 


I might also personally add to this list my personal fondness for the comedies Working Girl and Other People's Money, both of which feature ample dialogue that clearly explains how the markets function in plain English.  These titles are all fiction but if you want a serious treatment of the real world of Wall Street, the documentary "Trader" really can't be beat.  For those of us who like trading, these are a great way to spend the weekend.  (Not sure if New Year's Eve will again be the second biggest night for movies this year since the forecast is for Sunday to be the coldest New Year's Eve since 1992!)


Favorite Wall Street Movies

December 30, 2017 8:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Wall Street Movies: After a long day at the desk, what’s more relaxing than kicking back and watching a movie about investing or trading? Here are 4 flicks for your favorite keyboard jockey:

– Eddie Murphy Trading Places ($9) Only tangentially related to trading, but filled with lots of oft quoted lines, this comedy is good for everyone.

– Wall Street ($10) Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel. Dated, but watchable. Skip the 2010 version — its awful.

– Boiler Room ($6) Know a retail stock jockey? This gritty flick will show him what the bad old days were like in the land of penny stocks. A cautionary tale with a great cast.

– Wolf of Wall Street ($14) Director Martin Scorsese uses Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie and Matthew McConaughey to great effect in this tale, based on real life story, of a talented salesman seduced by fast money and penny stocks.

– Margin Call ($7) This 2011 film set during the financial crisis has already been called the greatest Wall Street movie ever made.

– The Big Short  The Great FInancial Crisis gets the Michael Lewis treatment . . .