Stock Market Movies

In today’s world, there is no dearth of sources of entertainment in any interest area. So, even to share market enthusiasts, there are various entertainment options like stocks market games and stock market movies.

Some stock market movies made during the last few years have been a treat to watch.

Also Read: Sectors in Stock Market

At the same time, they have been successful in delivering quite a few lessons for their viewers.

Top 10 Stock Market Movies

Let us discuss 10 stock market movies which have been made brilliantly and are a must to watch for every individual who is interested in stock markets and money-making.

All of these movies will help you to learn stock market and teaches you those intrinsics of the stock market that, maybe, a stock market education course, might not!

Maybe you would like to watch a few of these!

Stock Market Movies in Hindi

Bollywood has experimented very less in this domain and out of those experiments, there have been very few movies that are worth watching. Let’s have a quick look at those first:

1. Gafla

It is one of the few Hindi stock market movies that was much appreciated by the audiences. It has been inspired by the infamous Harshad Mehta’s ₹4025 crores scam which was responsible for a lot of mess created in thousands of lives.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The protagonist of the movie named Subodh has been shown like a normal ambitious middle-class man. He has limited opportunities in his to grow.

The movie is about his journey into the stock markets making him a big player and then leading to the scam.

Learning – The major learning from the movie is that no matter how confident one is about his / her strategies to grow money in the stock market, there is always a level of uncertainty in the stock market and one should refrain from investing all of the savings in stocks.

Main Cast – Somesh Agarwal, Anshul Chobey, Nishikant Dixit

Where to Watch: Youtube, DailyMotion

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2. Baazaar

It is another one of the most entertaining Hindi stock market movies which became quite popular and did good business in India.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The movie is about a small-town boy, Rizwan Ahmed which is being played by Rohan Mehra who wants to make it big in life and wants to work with his idol, Shakun Kothari (played by Saif Ali Khan).

The whole story revolves around the stock market, insider trading, the concepts of hostile takeovers, corruption, deceit, etc.

Also Review, Insider Trading Examples, Insider Trading Types, and Insider Trading Regulations to get detailed information about how the window dressing, legal and illegal activities in the share market are done.

Learning – The major learning from this movie is to stay away from illegal practices of stock trading and not to trust anyone blindly when money is concerned.

Main Cast – Saif Ali Khan, Rohan Mehra, Radhika Apte, Chitrangada Singh, Raddheya Mahendru

Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime

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Stock Market Movies Hollywood

On the other hand, Hollywood has been coming up with stock market movies every now and then. Furthermore, the script and the star cast has always been at the top-end level too.

Here is a quick look at some of the best attempts made by Hollywood in this challenging space:

3. The Wolf Of Wall Street

This is one of the finest stock market movies which is based on real-life events of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker. This stock market movie shows a pump and dump scheme which was responsible for many large companies launch their IPOs.

Basic Plot of the Movie – This is one of those stock market movies which has glorified the life of a scandalous protagonist being played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie revolves about his character who began his journey on Wall Street as a stockbroker.

He became quite a success owing to his aggressive pitching style and high commissions.

But like everything, his lavish lifestyle had to come to an end when he got arrested for being involved in crime and corruption.

Learning – Stock market movies generally give similar lessons like this one. One should not try to take the shortcuts to be successful, especially the ones which are illegal because no matter how smart an individual is, it is not possible to deceive everyone all the time.

Main Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal

Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime

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4. Margin Call

It is one of the most interesting thrilling stock market movies which is based on a 24-hour duration during the early stages of the 2008 recession. It beautifully shows how trading in highly complex instruments can lead to a disaster of a huge firm in such a short span.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The movie begins on a day when 80% of the workforce of a big investment firm has been fired. One of the fired employees passes on some information to an analyst who wasn’t the victim of firing.

The information is quite disturbing for the investment firm and causes a lot of havoc when revealed to the senior managers of the firm. Then, the movie shows a lot of immoral practices in which the firm is selling worthless holdings to their ignorant customers.

Learning – The movie shows dishonesty and deception that ultimately dooms all the people involved in it. Stock market movies generally show such practices but one should understand that the age-old proverb “Honesty is the best policy” holds true, especially in the long term.

Dishonesty can lead to short term gains but it cannot continue forever.

Main Cast – Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Penn Badgley

Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime

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5. Wall Street

If one is talking about stock market movies, it is not possible to not talk about the famous movie “Wall Street”.

The movie was released in the year 1987 and tells the story about a young stockbroker, being played by Charlie Sheen.

He aspires to work with this hero Gordon Gekko (being played by Michael Douglas) who was actually a filthy rich, unscrupulous corporate raider.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The movie is a story about this young man, Bud Fox who uses insider trading and other illegal practices to impress his hero, Gordon Gekko and starts working for him. Bud Fox made a lot of money for his employer as well as himself. This draws the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

After a lot of twists and turns, Bud Fox realizes his mistakes and how he had been helping Gekko in destroying several lives. Finally, he did the right thing to do.

Learning – Like many other stock market movies, this movie also shows illicit trades happening and quick money being made. But ultimately, we get to learn that quick and easy money made dishonestly does not last long.

Main Cast – Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, John C. McGinley

Where to Watch: Hotstar, Amazon Prime

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6. Rogue Trader

This is one of the biographical stock market movies which is based on the fall of Barings Bank in the year 1995.

The movie is based on the life of Nick Leeson who was responsible for the collapse and wrote the book “Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World”.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The movie is a true story about an employee of Barings Bank, Nick Leeson, who rose to become a key trader for the bank in a span of a few years.

He starts to hide huge losses through the 88888 error account and gambles away the money of the bank. Due to the huge amount of losses, he and his wife decide to escape to Malaysia but after knowing about the bankruptcy of the Barings bank, he decides to go back but was arrested and sentenced to 6.5 years of jail.

Learning – Like many other stock market movies, this movie also tells about the importance of being honest with one’s work and how deceiving others can make us regret later.

Main Cast – Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, Pip Torrens, Tim McInnerny, Nigel Lindsay

Where to Watch: Youtube

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7. The Big Short

This is another of the stock market movies that have been based on books.

The Big Short is based on a nonfiction book, “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” written by Michel Lewis. If one is discussing the stock market movies about the huge infamous housing bubble crisis of the U.S., then, this movie has to be discussed and seen.

This is definitely one of the most interesting stock market movies one can ever watch.

Basic Plot of the Movie – This stock market movie shows three different stories happening at the same time and shows the occurrence of the burst of the housing market bubble in the U.S., the repercussions of which could be seen around the world. Some scenes in the movie explain complex concepts like credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, etc. beautifully.

A highly intelligent hedge fund manager Michel Burry could predict that the housing market of the U.S. is very unstable and it is just a matter of time that the whole market will come crashing along with some huge investment banks.

He bets against market-based mortgage-based securities and was ridiculed and questioned by everybody badly. He did not give up and ultimately, his fund grew by a staggering 489% earning a profit of around $2.69 billion.

The movie also highlights the role of rating agencies like Standard & Poors in the whole disaster.

It also shows how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) failed to regulate and monitor mortgage-backed securities.

Learning – It is important to trust one’s own instincts and analysis even if the whole world seems to be against it because crisis always occurs unexpectedly and the majority of the people are not prepared for it.

Main Cast – Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, John Magaro

Where to Watch: Netflix

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8. Boiler Room

This is one of those stock market movies which makes audiences aware of the very real pump and dump firms which rob investors of their hard-earned money who were looking to grow their capital by investing in stocks.

Basic Plot of the Movie – The movie is about a 19-year-old boy who joins a dubious brokerage firm, J.T. Marlin in order to become a millionaire. The firm used its brokers to artificially escalate prices of the stocks of fake companies and speculative penny stocks.

After the increase of prices, founders of the firm used to exit and earn profits by trading in good quality stocks.

This used to leave no buyers in the market for those penny and fake companies’ stocks resulting in huge losses to the investors of those stocks. Finally, after a lot of twists and turns, the FBI raids the building.

Learning – Stock market movies are rich in valuable financial lessons.

The best learning from this movie is that one should stick to the fundamentals of a company in order to invest them.

Rise in prices of companies without any valid reasons should raise a red flag and one should try to avoid them as much as possible.

Main Cast – Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime

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9. Money Monster

This is one of those larger than life stock market movies which is highly entertaining and will keep you glued to it till the end. It is about a TV host who advises people on making investment and trading decisions.

Basic Plot of the Movie – This movie is about a man named Kyle Budwell, who lost his entire savings $60,000 by investing in IBIS Clear Capital’s stock because the famous TV show host, Lee Gates had highly recommended it.

Kyle takes Lee hostage on gunpoint and demands to interrogate IBIS’s CEO, Walt Camby but Camby does not become available as he has gone to Geneva for a business trip. He is told that the stock fell drastically due to a glitch in an algorithm but Kyle does not buy the explanation.

As he is trying to find answers to his questions, the movie slowly turns suspicion towards the illicit investment activities done by IBIS. The movie is a treat to watch and is one of the must-watch stock market movies ever made.

Learning – This movie gives clear learning of not trusting any analyst blindly. Also, one should not keep all the eggs in one basket and always diversify in order to protect oneself from such situations.

Main Cast – Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe

Where to Watch: Netflix

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10. Too Big To Fail

This is also one of those stock market movies which is based on the U.S. recession of the year 2008. It highlights the actions of the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve System.

Basic Plot of the Movie – This movie takes you through the intricate details of what was happening in huge corporate, investment banks and the government of the United States. How the savings of the huge banks was done, etc. One would feel like he/she is a part of the movie as it involves the audiences so much.

Learning – The major learning is to diversify one’s savings in risky and risk-free assets because of the uncertain nature of life.

Main Cast – William Hurt, Edward Asner, Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Topher Grace

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime

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Conclusion

Stock market movies are entertaining for stock market enthusiasts but they can also be fun for others as well who are not venturing in this field. Every movie has something to teach. So, just keep an open mind and enjoy all the stock market movies discussed here!

Happy binge-watching!

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