12 Best Stock Market Movies

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12 Best Stock Market Movies

Movies:

The Wolf of Wall Street
The Big Short
Inside Job
Margin Call
Rogue Trader
Billions
Wall Street
Boiler Room
Trading Places

Baazaar
Gafla
Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story

Stock Market in itself is no less exciting than an action-packed movie. Ups and downs, bull and bear phases, blood bath on bad days, and the phoenix rise on good days. A stock market trader or investor experiences it all.
Many good stock market movies, web-series, and documentaries have been made not only worldwide but also in India covering various aspects of the stock market: finance, internal functioning, behind scene corporate actions, lobbying by market makers, retail investors, and some also on the funny side of this serious field.

We have identified the best 12 of such share market movies from Hollywood and from India:

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Poster-style graphic for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013): a hand-drawn stack of five banknotes beside a green zigzag arrow pointing up above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

No list of Stock market movies can be published without including The Wolf of Wall Street. Though not the first movie on this topic, The Wolf of Wall Street has risen up as a ‘Poster’ movie for all finance-related movies.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and based on the real-life of flamboyant, ‘bad boy’ billionaire stockbroker, trader Jordan Bellfort, The Wolf of Wall Street is an intriguing display of the charismatic rise and flashy lifestyle of Jordan Belfort.

The Big Short (2015)

Poster-style graphic for The Big Short (2015): a hand-drawn house outline beside a rust-coloured zigzag arrow pointing down above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

The Big Short is made on the book, ‘The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine’ published in 2010 by Michael Lewis.
It covers the story of a group of contra-traders who bet (and ultimately won) against the housing bubble, CDO, financial crisis in the US during 2007-2008.

Inside Job (2010, Documentary)

Poster-style graphic for Inside Job (2010 Documentary): a hand-drawn bank building with five columns and a green magnifying glass over its right side above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Inside Job won the Best Documentary award at Oscars 2011. Deserving the accolade, Inside Job is a documentary on the 2008 Financial Crisis. It talks about many ‘inside’ details, wrongdoings of banks, the financial world, governing bodies which led to the 2008 crisis.

Margin Call (2011)

Poster-style graphic for Margin Call (2011): a hand-drawn clock face beside a small rust crescent moon above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Starring Kevin Spacey, Margin Call is a one-night story at a financial firm on how they try to cover the positions after realizing that they over-leveraged trades and the volatility might cause losses to the firm larger than their net worth.

Rogue Trader (1999)

Poster-style graphic for Rogue Trader (1999): a hand-drawn ledger page with ruled lines and a rust-coloured line stepping down like a staircase above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

A real-life story of the rogue, reckless trader Nick Leeson, ‘Rogue Trader’ narrates how Nick took illegal advantage of clients’ money to place risky trades and ended in losses worth billions. He covered it up under an adjustment account for many days. The movie holds viewers with its interesting storyline until the end.

Billions (2016, TV Series)

Poster-style graphic for Billions (2016 TV series): a hand-drawn judge's gavel on its block beside a tall green stack of coins above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Billions is a fictional TV series based on the battle of the billionaire Bobby Axelrod (Hedge Fund Manager of Axe Capital) and a US Attorney who is on a pursuit to legally seize wrongdoings of Bobby in his hedge fund.

Wall Street (1987)

Poster-style graphic for Wall Street (1987): nine hand-drawn rectangle outlines of different heights, like tall buildings or bars, standing on a black baseline, with a green line that zigzags across them and rises from left to right overall, above the title "Wall Street" in large serif type and the year 1987 in green, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Wall Street Movie is about the charismatic stockbroker Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen). It is a story of Fox’s unethical actions in the stock market, insider trading, and the series of events that unfold consequently.

Boiler Room (2000)

Poster-style graphic for Boiler Room (2000): a hand-drawn desk telephone with a round dial and its handset resting on top, with a green cord above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Boiler Room movie is about the boiler room of millionaires in their 20s. It is an interesting story about how a college dropout gets successful by not all ethical practices. Full of flashy houses, cars, and dreamy life of brokers like most other movies on this topic, Boiler Room distinguishes itself with excellent performances and storyline.

Trading Places (1983)

Poster-style graphic for Trading Places (1983): the title in serif type with two opposite arrows and two coin stacks, suggesting swapped fortunes.

Though many movies mentioned above have a dash of comedy in them, ‘Trading Places’ is the only one from this list that can be uniquely classified into the Comedy genre.
Trading Places is not only a dark satire comedy on insider trader but also includes social, economical aspects of the US in the 80s.

Indian Movies on Stock Market

Baazaar (2018)

Poster-style graphic for Baazaar (2018): eight hand-drawn candlesticks, mostly green with two in rust, rising from left to right above the title in large serif type, on an off-white background with a thin black border.

Starring Saif Ali Khan, Baazaar is an Indian Hindi Movie which is based on an ambitious newbie trader Rizwan mentored by Stock Market Kingpin Shagun Kothari (played by Saif). Rizwan approaches his idol Shagun and wins his confidence but later sticks deep into the immoral web of Shagun.

Gafla (2006)

Poster-style graphic for Gafla (2006): the title in serif type above a hand-drawn price line that climbs steeply and then crashes.

Gafla is based on the real-life story of the infamous broker of the 90s – Harshad Mehta. The movie shows how the broker churns profit from the stock market by diverting money from the securities market and using the pump and dump technique in the Indian stock market.

Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story (2020, Web Series)

Poster-style graphic for Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story (2020 web series): the title in serif type above a hand-drawn bar chart that rises for nine bars and then drops sharply.

Like Gafla, Scam 1992 is also based on Harshad Mehta and his fraudulent modus operandi to earn profits from the Indian stock market in the 90s. Scam 1992 is a web series not just about the extravagant lifestyle of Harshad Mehta and his unscrupulous practices but it also tries to uncover the whole securities, stock market scenario of India in the 90s.
Based on Sucheta Dalal’s book with the same name, Scam 1992, is receiving appreciation for its storyline, performances of actors (especially the protagonist played by Pratik Gandhi), editing, and groovy intro, soundtracks and is a must-watch for traders, investors in India.

That’s it. Hope you like the list. Do comment your thoughts below.