If you're tired of the usual Hollywood blockbusters but can't stand to turn off the television, it's time to consider something more helpful to watch.
In today's article, we've produced a list of some of the best movies you may watch to understand the financial world better while also getting the entertainment value you crave.
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1. Trading Places (1983)
Eddie Murphy plays a streetwise con artist who is duped into becoming the manager of a commodities trading corporation, unintentionally replacing his successor, a blue-blooded executive played by Dan Aykroyd, in this modern-day remake of The Prince and the Pauper.
Although the characters' adjustment to their new lives takes precedence, the film's final 15 minutes feature a hectic trading session in the orange juice futures pits. Without giving anything away, this sequence is worth the price of admission on its alone, but the supporting cast, the 80s nostalgia, and excellent acting from the stars make this a must-see.
Also read: 10 Best Personal Finance Books For Financial Success
2. Wall Street (1987)
The Oliver Stone classic that drove thousands of college graduates to scream "Blue Horseshoe likes Anacott Steel" as they ran to their Series 7 exams is surprised, the number one financial film that every professional should see. Nearly 30 years later, Wall Street, which was meant to show the luxury and hedonism associated with banking, is still a valuable recruiting tool for traders, brokers, analysts, and bankers.
Even if the film is intended to educate us about the dangers of insider trading, who wouldn't want to be Bud Fox or Gordon Gekko? (Of course, legally) and indulge our greedy side? "Greed is good," as Gekko may say.
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3. Boiler Room (2000)
The pump and dump plan is the setting for the Boiler Room, which is located at the bottom of the financial ladder. While the movie Boiler Room is a work of fiction, pump-and-dump companies and the misery and suffering they cause their victims are pretty accurate.
Boiler Room serves as a cautionary tale for newcomers to the stock market, advising them to stick to transparent, well-established companies with excellent fundamentals.
Also read: Drop These 5 Bad Financial Habits Right Away
4. Margin Call (2011)
Margin Call is the most financially accurate film on the list. Margin Call makes little effort to conceal its disdain for some of the world's central banks' excessive risk-taking in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, such as trading complex derivative contracts they barely understood.
In one particularly moving sequence in the film, two prominent figures discuss the imminent disaster that would soon befall their bank and the unwary financial landscape, as a janitor sits between them, utterly clueless to what is happening.
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5. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
You're missing out on some of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill's best performances if you haven't watched this Scorsese-directed movie about the rise and fall of a famous stock scammer, Jordan Belfort.
The story revolves around the infamous Stratton Oakmont, an over-the-counter brokerage business and a pump-and-dump operation that helped IPO numerous large public companies in the late 1980s and 1990s, similar to Barbarians' pump and dump (albeit with a lot of dramatic licence in it).
These films are mandatory viewing for every aspiring financial professional, but even if you aren't thinking about a career in finance, you should watch them. They can provide some insight into the bizarre and occasionally absurd banking world.
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