As I already started the topic of films about trading, I would like to continue the tendency with the first part of my list of movies about traders and brokers, which you might find interesting to check out:
1. Rollover (1981) is a political and financial thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson. Lee Winters is the widow of the Chairman and primary stockholder of Winterchem Enterprises, a chemical company, who is attempting to obtain financing of the purchase of a processing plant in Spain, while trying to determine why her husband was murdered. Apparently, her late husband discovered some damning information about an Account Number 21214, a secret slush fund involving asset transfers...
2. Trading Places (1983)
is an American comedy film directed by John Landis, starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. Louis Winthorpe III is a successful Philadelphia commodity broker with mansion, manservant and girlfriend to match. Billy Ray Valentine is a hustling beggar. Winthorpe's employers, the elderly Duke brothers, make a bet that by switching the lifestyle of the two Billy Ray will make good and their man will take to a life of crime. Suddenly Louis finds himself uncomprehendingly with no job, no home and only a new acquaintance, glamorous hooker Ophelia, prepared to help him. So at least in one way things could actually be worse.
3. Wall Street (1987)
is an American popular drama film, directed and co-written by Oliver Stone. A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.
4. Working Girl (1988)
starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Spacey. Tess McGill is a hard working young woman who is determined to reach the top of the stockmarket world by hard work but as she turns 30 she is stuck in secretarial work so when she starts working for Katherine Parker she is glad that Katherine is willing to accept input and ideas from her. However when Katherine goes on holiday and breaks her leg she asks Tess to look after things and this causes Tess to discover that Katherine is going to pinch her big idea that would save a large company from a foreign takeover. Enraged that her boyfriend is also cheating on her, Tess sets out to do a deal by using her idea herself while Katherine is away. She teams up with Jack Trainer to close the deal before Katherine's return and the two slowly fall in love little knowing that Jack is Katherine's boyfriend.
5. Dealers (1989)
is a British film directed by Colin Bucksey, starring Paul McGann and Rebecca De Mornay.The London branch of Whitney Paine, a major American investment bank, is in the midst of a crisis; after the loss of $100 million, one of their leading traders, Tony Eisner commits suicide by putting a slug through his head while seated at his place in the board room. Despite the high stakes, many of the firm's staff are eager to step into Tony's now-vacated shoes and get credit for saving the company. Daniel Pascoe, the leading trader at the firm, is convinced that he's first in line for the assignment, but the firm imports a new trader from America, Anna Schuman. Daniel is enraged and makes a point of trying to dig up as much dirt on Anna as he can, but things are going to take another turn.
6. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
is a 1992 American drama, adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play of the same name, and directed by James Foley. Times are tough in a New York real-estate office; the salesmen (Shelley Levene, Ricky Roma, Dave Moss, and George Aaronow) are given a strong incentive by Blake to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is the sack! There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only "closers" will get the good sales leads. There is a lot of pressure to succeed, so a robbery is committed which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters.
7. Boiler Room (2000)
is an American crime drama film written and directed by Ben Younger, and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin, and Jamie Kennedy.A young man has dropped out of Queens College but desperately wants to please his father, a federal judge who's harsh with his son. At his father's insistence, Seth Davis closes a casino he operates in his own house, mostly for college students. Thinking he'll please dad, he takes a job in a small brokerage house, an hour from Manhattan, where trainees make cold calls to lists of well-paid men, and then apply high-pressure tactics to sell initial public offerings exclusive to the firm. He's terrific at sales. Once training is over, the pay is phenomenal, and Seth wonders why. Curiosity leads him to ethical dilemmas, encounters with the Feds, and new territory with his father.
8. The Corporation (2003)
is a Canadian documentary film written by University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary examines the modern-day corporation. Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
9. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
is a documentary film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a study of one of the largest business scandals in American history. McLean and Elkind are credited as writers of the film alongside the director, Alex Gibney. Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate. Along the way, we watch Enron game California's deregulated electricity market, get a free pass from Arthur Andersen (which okays the dubious mark-to-market accounting), use greed to manipulate banks and brokerages (Merrill Lynch fires the analyst who questions Enron's rise), and hear from both Presidents Bush what great guys these are.
10. Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
is a sequel to the above-mentioned popular movie "Wall Street" of 1987. It follows the actions of a Wall Street trader after his release from prison. The unique nature of the movie is in the fact that in this instance life imitates art, namely the original movie dealt with a fictional airline by the name of "Bluestar Airline" which was the company bankrupted by the fictional character of Michael Douglas. In reality a company named "Blue Star Jets" was in fact started in 2001 by real-life businessmen Ricky Sitomer and Todd Rome.
