Movies are a great source of entertainment and most of the movies are actually made for that one purpose but, What if you can take away some knowledge from the movies or some web series that has been made over the past years?
It would be great isn’t it, watching movies for the entertainment factor provides along with some knowledge that you might actually use in some real-life scenarios. Well, it is not advisable in the stock market to certainly rely on fictional movies to trade your everyday stocks or even for investment purposes, but the flip side to this can be actually useful when you see certain Hollywood or Bollywood movies (in some cases) scenario unfold before you and you can take advantage of your reel knowledge to your use. We can classify reels on certain criteria like some of the movies which I will be listing here are purely fictional and has nothing to do with real-life stock market scenarios and can be pretty misleading but, keeping the overall feel of the stock market intact to give you a holistic view.
Some of the movies can be documentaries and docufiction which are based on real facts and scenarios which has happened over the history of the Stock market and can provide you with a very good learning experience.
Some of the movies will be somewhat factual and somewhat fictional and it would be totally on your understanding to pick out the best from it or just add it to your watchlist just for the Netflix and chill factor to it.
Let’s start with some homegrown movies and web series but, before starting let me put this quick little disclaimer out there:
India’s Biggest Scam: The Satyam Scam
All the movies, documentaries, and web series mentioned here are made for purely entertainment purposes, and one should not treat this as any kind of investment advice and should never ever base their trading or investment decision on factors mentioned in these movies or web series. Always consult your financial advisor and do your own research before investing or trading your hard-earned money.
This list is not in any chronological order and is completely random.
(1) Scam 1992
I would like to start with one of the few Homegrown masterpieces. This is one of the best portrayals of what had happened in the year 1992 in the Indian stock market. This is a web series based on the famously covered Scandal of bank receipts and insider trading brought to the limelight by Sucheta Dalal, a financial journalist, and how it changed the whole scenario of the Indian stock market from what it was then and What it is now. This is an 8 episodic portrayal of Mr. Harshad Mehta’s life and how it intertwined with the national scandal.
Spoiler: Sensex was around 2000 in those times.
(2) Bazaar
I bet you did not know about this Saif Ali Khan starrer gem of a movie from the year 2018, yes it is not even that old yet at least I had no idea about this movie until 2021 since I started trading in the stock market. It is a Saif Ali Khan, Chitrangada Singh, and Radhika Apte starrer film in which the story revolves around a small-town stock trader coming to Mumbai to make his fortune and turning his life into a crime thriller movie.
(3) Gafla
Now that’s a predictable title and an appropriate one for the Indian drama lovers but, this drama is actually based on the 1992 Scam but not with actual names and actual licenses. It is a Vikram Gokhale and Vinod Sharawat starrer 2006s movie which is loosely based on the life of the real Big bull Mr. Harshad Mehta and the 400 crore scam that took place in the year of 1992.
The genre of this movie is Crime/drama.
(4) Corporate
With an IMDB rating of 6.5/10, this is a Bipasha Basu starrer flick which revolves around the investment field and is directed by acclaimed director Madhur Bhandarkar and is all about what happens behind the curtains of two companies competing against each other with all the unethical happenings.
Now let us look at some of the Hollywood picks
(5) The Wolf of Wall Street
This is a fiction-based movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Margot Robbie falling in the genre of comedy which revolves around the story of a small stockbroker making it to the top of his fortune by unethical means and cheating a lot of wealthy investors with a small team of petty stock brokers.
Who is the Warren Buffett of India: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
Margot Robbie plays the role of Leonardo Di Caprio’s wife and played a crucial role. You can take away the holistic picture of a brokerage firm and how they work in a real-world scenario from this movie while being completely fictitious.
(6) The Big Short
If you are into the stock market trading and investing or even remotely interested in the field then you might already have an idea of what this movie might be all about?
It is a Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling starrer movie in the main roles who predicted the housing mortgage bubble collapse of 2007 and made their fortunes by shorting the opportunity. Hence the name.
(7) Inside Job
This a Netflix Documentary with an IMDb rating of 8.2/10 and is based on the 2008 collapse of the world economic market and the American Recession, the whole documentary is narrated by Matt Damon and can be considered as a must-watch for anybody even remotely interested in knowing the history and what situations unfolded during those times of crisis when millions of people lost there job.
(8) Margin Call
This is a 2011 movie which is said to be based on a true story and dictates the story of a companies management division head when fired in the early times of the 2008 financial crisis and is mostly based on his investigations about the reason for the companies downfall, The last few days before the extreme crash of 2008.
(9) Trading Places
This is one of the oldest movies on this list and is again a comedy if you are into that kind of stuff, I mean according to me stock market and comedy don’t fit well. But, this is an Eddie Murphy murphy starrer comedy in which a high-profile trader and a street artist switch positions in their life to see how it all unfolds as a result of a bet. A good watch you can call it.
(10) Limitless
This is a movie that is complete entertainment and has no learning value. The movie revolves around a guy who by mistake takes a performance-enhancing drug and sees all the patterns of the stock market which nobody sees and makes a lot of money trading stocks. The main role is played by none other than Bradley Cooper and is an entertainment category listing.
Although these movies are stock market related and hold some kind of value whether it is about the historical value or the holistic view about how the stock market really works, it is still not at all advisable to indulge in trading or investing activities by just watching these films and you should always try to learn and do your own research before jumping into the trading and investing world.
