You would think that, because I think of money all day, I wouldn’t want to relax with watching a movie about money. Well, you were wrong! Because I absolutely love ‘Wall Street Movies’; they’re probably one of my favourite genres (much to my husband’s dismay because he hates them). There are so many money-related movies out there, such as Boiler Room, which I won’t be writing about here, but here is a list of some of the few I would recommend.

The Big Short (2015)

Of course I was going to write about this one; this is probably one of the most famous Wall Street movies out there, and it’s a deep dive into the US Housing Market Crisis of 2008. It follows the investors that bet against the US property market, hence the name, The Big Short. This movie can get a little complicated at times, as there are many factors and moving parts to what led up to one of the biggest financial crashes of modern times. Most of the characters portrayed are based on real people and one thing I love about this movie is the use of cameo appearances, such as Selena Gomez, Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain (RIP) to explain complex investment concepts into easy-to-understand analogies.

Rogue Trader (1999)

This movie is cool because it’s set in Singapore! This is the true story of Nick Leeson, a rising trading star in Singapore, who caused the insolvency of Bearings Bank. His whole job as a trader was to trade on behalf of the bank’s clients on the Japan Stock Exchange, and when he starts losing large sums of money, he starts to make very risky investment decisions to try and recuperate these losses. This movie does a great job at highlighting the importance of risk management; sometimes the big risks don’t pay off and the loss is insurmountable. Not only this, Leeson opens fake, unauthorised accounts and starts using those to trade. Him and his wife attempt to escape Singapore when they realise they are in legal trouble, but are caught in Frankfurt. Leeson was later deported back to Singapore and sentenced to 6 years in prison.

War Dogs (2016)

This movie is one of my favourites and is so underrated! It’s finance-adjacent, but I wanted to include it in this list because I think it perfectly shows how greed can blur the lines of morals. This true story follows two arms dealers on their journey from being small fish, to closing on a US Military contract of $300 million. I won’t spoil too much about this film, because I don’t think it’s as heavily watched as other films on this list, but this story involves a lot of forged documents, repackaging illegal ammunition to pass them off as legitimate, and smuggling guns across hostile boarders. It’s so funny, gripping and interesting, and it almost makes you think, ‘If given the opportunity, would I be capable of doing something like this?’. Of course, this all backfires on the pair and the following FBI investigation and legal proceedings are interesting, too, and you almost end up feeling sorry for this pair, at least I do.

Wall Street (1987)

The quintessential Wall Street movie (duh). I think this movie convinced a lot of people to become traders, even though it highlights people on Wall Street were cheating and breaking the rules in order to make a lot of money. One thing to take note is that this movie contains a lot of trading jargon and in depth investment talk, so maybe it’s best to watch some of the others, such as The Big Short, first. I really like these older movies that show how investments and trading was executed before digitalisation; the brokers actually had to call someone on the New York Stock Exchange to make the trade, whereas now it’s all online. It’s interesting to note that inside trading is not allowed; generally traders are not allowed to make investment decisions that they know will benefit them, if it isn’t public knowledge. Bud, one of the main characters in the film, does not disclose this insider information- very illegal. This is a great watch, a true classic.

American Psycho (2000)

Ok, hear me out, I know this is more of a thriller, and it doesn’t talk too much about finance, but everyone interested in money and investment should watch this movie. And yes, I also know it’s a bit of a bro-movie, but I think it’s great. Christian Bale plays a wealthy investment banker who is…you guessed it…a psychopath. This film shows how toxic and removed from reality the finance world can be. We’ve all probably seen the business card scene; I think this perfectly depicts how disconnected some of these people are; they care so much about these business-related things, and not so much on the real, human things. If you haven’t, please watch this movie.

The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

The ultimate ‘Finance Bro’ movie. This is the story of Jordan Belfort, a massive scammer who lost a lot of money for a lot of people. It shows the sketchy and shady side of Wall Street, showing how some brokerages didn’t care if their clients made money, because they made money off of transaction fees. It also shows how easy it was back in the 80s and 90s to sell someone a junk bond (low grade bonds) or penny stocks, by over amplifying the gain and not speaking about the risk. This of course wouldn’t be allowed to do now, and especially in Singapore, there are a lot of regulations in place. Jordan Belfort’s company, Stratton Oakmont, is a perfect example of a pump-and-dump scheme; the company artificially inflated the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once you look past all the bro-stuff in this movie, it’s great.

There a tonne of other movies that I haven’t put on this list, including a Wall Street sequel decades later: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, but if I carry on writing about all these movies, I’d be here all day, and some of them I’ve yet to watch! On top of finance movies, I love watching documentaries about finance and investment events, so let me know if you’d like me to write a list of these!