Content
Movie Recommendations
Films and documentaries about markets, financial crises, and the people who work in finance.
The Big Short
An unusually clear explanation of mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps, wrapped in a story about conviction.
Margin Call
Twenty-four hours inside an investment bank as it realises its risk models have failed. The best film depiction of risk management under pressure.
Inside Job
An Academy Award-winning documentary on the causes of the 2008 financial crisis.
Too Big to Fail
The 2008 crisis from the perspective of regulators and bank CEOs, based on Andrew Ross Sorkin’s reporting.
Wall Street
The defining Wall Street film of its era, and still useful for discussing ethics, insider information, and incentives.
Trading Places
A comedy that ends on a genuinely instructive frozen orange juice futures trade. The plot later lent its name, informally, to a provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
Moneyball
Not about markets, but about exactly what good analysts do: finding value the market misprices by asking better questions of the data.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
A documentary on the Enron collapse and a strong companion to any session on reading financial statements skeptically.