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FNCE10002 Principles of Finance

Semester 1, 2019

Department of Finance FNCE10002 Principles of Finance Information on Movies with a Finance Theme

I usually make this document available after the mid semester break but this semester I’ve decided to make it available earlier. Here, in chronological order, is information on movies (including made-for-TV movies and documentaries) with a Finance theme. Finance is never dull and boring, even at the movies! Most (but not all) of the links and plot summaries are from the Internet Movie Database. 1. Trading Places (1983) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjDbJQKDXCY Summary: Louis Winthorpe III is a successful New York 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. My comments: One of my favorite comedies with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd at their best. The finance part comes towards the end of the movie. See if you can figure out what is going on in the futures trading pit. It’s a simple application of the “but low, sell high” and “sell high, buy back low” rules! 2. Quicksilver (1986) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091814/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPTu2F450sk Summary: Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of New York City. He soon is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis? My comments: The finance theme is more in the background.

Movies with a Finance Theme

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3. Wall Street (1987) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCctqbRrsBQ Summary: Bud Fox is a Wall Street stockbroker with a strong desire to get to the top. Working for his firm during the day, he spends his spare time working on an angle to approach the high-powered, extremely successful (but ruthless) broker Gordon Gekko. He finally meets with Gekko, who explains to him his philosophy that “Greed is Good”. Taking this advice and working closely with Gekko, Fox soon finds himself swept into a world of “yuppies”, shady business deals, the “good life”, fast money, and fast women; something which is at odds with his family and the way he was brought up. My comments: A classic and quite an appropriate movie at the time it was released. The fashions may have changed but the theme is just as relevant now as it was then given the recent turmoil in stock markets around the world. Coincidentally, equity markets suffered one of their biggest crashes in October 1987. 4. Dealers (1989) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097172/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEMD-Q6P_c Summary: 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. My comments: Haven’t seen it and it hasn’t got good reviews on IMDb either. 5. Pretty Woman (1990) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng2hEIWVqqo Summary: Edward is a rich, ruthless businessman who specializes in taking over companies and then selling them off piece by piece. He travels to Los Angeles for a business trip and decides to hire a prostitute. They take a liking to each other and he offers her money if she’ll stay with him for an entire week while he makes the “rich and famous” scene (since it doesn’t do for a man of his stature to be alone at society parties and polo matches). Romantic comedy (and complications) ensue. My comments: Suggested by a colleague in the Department who is obviously a big Julia Roberts fan. The finance theme is in the background. 6. Other People’s Money (1991) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED95_S5-of4 Summary: A corporate raider threatens a hostile takeover of a “mom and pop” company. The patriarch of the company enlists the help of his wife’s daughter, who is a lawyer, to try and protect the company. The raider is enamored by her, and enjoys the thrust and parry of legal maneuvering as he tries to win her heart. My comments: Mergers and acquisitions are a popular movie theme.

Movies with a Finance Theme

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7. Barbarians at the Gate (1993) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106356/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3DWpuISBas Summary: F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco decides that the time is ripe to take over his own company and enlists American Express. This kicks off a tide of other firms swarming in to tender offers. The outline of the film follows the actual takeover of the RJR Nabisco empire in a tongue in cheek way. My comments: Mergers and acquisitions are a popular movie theme. 8. The Associate (1996) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115580/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ewBTXlGP0 Summary: Whoopi Goldberg stars in this comedy about making it on Wall Street. Prejudices are hard to break and Goldberg’s character quickly learns that in order for people to take her seriously she has to work for an older white man or be one. My comments: The Finance theme is more in the background. Even now Finance remains a relatively male dominated discipline, but things have improved over the years. It certainly is a lot better than (say) ten or fifteen years ago! 9. Pi (1998) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0SC582sJvE Summary: In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he’s had terrible headaches; plus, he can’t abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he’s obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen. Does nature offer any solutions? Can Max find them? My comments: Haven’t seen this one. 10. Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEyrivrjAuU Summary: This film is the semi-humorous documentary about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer Corporation and Microsoft Inc. My comments: Haven’t seen it but it looks interesting. 11. Rogue Trader (1999) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131566/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgqSVVLFmds Summary: Ambitious, wide-boy Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor) is determined to rise in the world and be more than a simple bank clerk. When his employers, Barings Bank, offer him the opportunity to go to Jakarta to sort Movies with a Finance Theme

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out a problem that nobody else wants, he seizes the opportunity with both hands. In Jakarta he meets and marries Lisa (Anna Friel) and together they go to Singapore when the bank offers him the job of setting up their future options trading operation. To save money the bank allows Nick to operate both the floor trading and the back office facilities and force him to employ cheap, unskilled staff. His first year of trading is a big success and he makes large profits for the bank even though he has illegally broken trading rules and secretly covered up losses. Given more freedom, even more money and continuing unchecked, Nick starts to make losses and again attempts to trade out of them but this time he comes unstuck as his illegal trading generates even bigger losses. After the death of his unborn child Nick completely loses control and gambles without restraint with other people’s money leading inevitably to a complete financial meltdown and the bankruptcy of the bank. My comments: The narrative is from Nick Leeson’s perspective so your mileage may vary! 12. Boiler Room (2000) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181984/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoTx9RpL5W4 Summary: 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. My comments: Looks at the seedier side of the stock brokering business. Over the years there have been several scandals involving boiler room operations which have since transformed into email-based scams. 13. American Psycho (2000) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GIsExb5jJU Summary: Patrick Bateman is a homicidal maniac working on the New York Stock Exchange. His reasons for killing are debatable, such as extreme envy of fellow co-workers, material obsession, pure hatred or simply no other reason than complete insanity. His lunacy escalates throughout the film, killing at least 20 people in the process, including models, homeless people, co-workers, friends, and anyone else who stands in his way, be it rage, jealousy, or something else. The only person who he seems to sympathize with is his secretary, Jean, who eventually he can’t help but have a desire to murder her. Many times, Patrick can’t tell whether these events are real, or simply part of a psychotic delusion brought on by his problems. My comments: Suggested by a student. Strange and weird – the movie, not the student! The finance theme is in the background. 14. Starup.com (2001) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjk-WmtNs3g Summary: Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom’s the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom’s daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first? Movies with a Finance Theme

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My comments: Highly recommended! The movie was released after the 1999-2000 tech bubble burst and the documentary focuses on the human angle which made it compelling viewing for me. Do a web search to find out what’s happened to the main protagonists since the documentary was made. 15. The Bank (2001) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241223/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPXK-FfnXxU Summary: The Bank is a thriller about banking, corruption and alchemy. My comments: Haven’t seen it but it looks intriguing just going by the tagline. “Banking thriller” does sound like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? 16. E-Dreams (2001) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/ Low resolution link to movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY8WoDKUKP8 Summary: The recent “new” economy with its unprecedented highs and frantic reversals of fortune is rife with fascinating true stories. e-Dreams turns its focus to the recently defunct Kozmo.com. Once upon a time, a story like this would have been unbelievable, even among those intimate with the workings of Wall Street. But Kozmo.com is now a case study of how an entire economic sector went awry. Just three years ago, Kozmo.com was just an idea in the minds of two 20-something Korean American investment bankers: an online convenience store that made deliveries of snacks, videotapes and other products within a half hour. Beginning in an unfurnished warehouse, co-founders Joseph Park and Yong Kang and their small group of employees did everything from build the website to making deliveries on bicycle. Over the following year their business grew from 10 employees to 3,000 and extended to 11 cities. Like so many other dot-coms, Kozmo.com’s growth was something hitherto unseen: It raised more than $250 million and attracted the attention of Starbucks and Amazon.com. But in the tough times following the April 2000 stock market crash, Kozmo found itself in a perilous position-unprofitable and struggling to keep its operations going; and the formerly ubiquitous bicycle-delivery people in orange became and endangered species. e-Dreams stands as an invaluable documentary about the feeding frenzy of success and failure that nearly consumed the nation’s economy. My comments: Haven’t seen this one. 17. The Corporation (2003) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/ Low resolution link to movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrhqtY2khc Summary: 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 its behavior, 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. My comments: Suggested by a student. Haven’t seen it but looks quite interesting.

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18. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413845/ Low resolution link to movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxzLX_C9Z74 Summary: Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history, in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country walked away with over one billion dollars, leaving investors and employees with nothing. The film features insider accounts and rare corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. The human drama that unfolds within Enron’s walls resembles a Greek tragedy and produces a domino effect that could shape the face of our economy and ethical code for years to come. My comments: A fascinating insight into what greed can do to people. And, oh so relevant even now! 19. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454921/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcZTtlGweQ Summary: In 1981, Chris Gardner was a struggling salesman in little needed medical bone density scanners while his wife toiled in double shifts to support the family including their young son, Christopher. In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to try for a stockbroker internship where one in twenty has a chance of a lucrative full time career. Even when his wife leaves him because of this choice, Chris clings to this dream with his son even when the odds become more daunting by the day. Together, father and son struggle through homelessness, jail time, tax seizure and the overall punishing despair in a quest that would make Gardner a respected millionaire. My comments: Suggested by a student. The focus, of course, is more on the person rather than on his career. A movie with a message but conveyed subtly. Here’s the link to Chris Gardner ’s web page: http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/. 20. Million Dollar Traders (2008) Link to part 1 of movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6ciY8u04Kk Summary: Eight ordinary people are given a million dollars, a fortnight of intensive training and two months to run their own hedge fund. Can they make a killing? The experiment reveals the inner workings of a City trading floor. The money is supplied by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam: he wants to see if ordinary people can beat the professionals, and he expects a return on his investment too. Yet no-one foresees the financial crisis that lies ahead. The traders were selected in spring 2008, before the US credit crisis gathered pace. The successful candidates were chosen, trained and dispatched to their specially created trading room in the heart of the Square Mile. Among them are an environmentalist, a soldier, a boxing promoter, an entrepreneur, a retired IT consultant, a vet, a student and a shopkeeper. As the novices learn the dark art of trading stocks and shares, the financial markets start to buckle. Making money takes second place to basic survival as the brutal realities of global economics take their toll on the traders. How do they cope? Will they secure themselves a bonus, or walk away with nothing? My comments: This documentary was produced by the BBC and presents a fascinating look at what it takes to become a successful trader (just one fortnight of intensive training isn’t it!) and why many think it’s a young person’s game. Or is it?

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21. Inside the Meltdown (2009) Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/ Summary: Inside the Meltdown investigates the causes of the worst economic crisis in 70 years and how the government responded. The film chronicles the inside stories of the Bear Stearns deal, Lehman Brothers’ collapse, the propping up of insurance giant AIG and the $700 billion bailout. It also examines what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t see and couldn’t stop. My comments: Produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the US. One of the best primers on how and why the 2007-08 Global Finance Crisis unfolded and how it spread around the world. 22. The Ascent of Money (2009) Link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/ Summary (from Wikipedia): The Ascent of Money is Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson‘s tenth book, published in 2008, and an adapted television documentary for Cha...