5 Best Stock Market Movies & Web Series to Watch

The stock market has always been a captivating subject, full of drama, suspense, and high stakes. Hollywood and streaming platforms have turned the thrill of trading, investing, and corporate battles into some of the most engaging movies and web series. Stock markets are a place with a lot of interesting stories, which the entertainment industry has depicted in creative ways over the years. The entertainment industry has done an excellent job of simplifying complex financial events so that anyone can understand them. However, most of them are based on real-life incidents that caused the stock markets to plummet.

In this blog, we will provide an overview of the best movies and web series about the stock market that are worth watching.

Performance Table: Best Stock Market Movies and Web Series

Overview of the Best Stock Market Movies and Web Series

The overview of the stock market movies and web series are:

1. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The film, which was released in 2013, was based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker who operated a dishonest brokerage business. It is revealed in this film that Jordan co-founded Stratton Oakmont with a man by the name of Donnie and that the company participated in pump-and-dump stock price manipulation. As a result, Jordan has amassed an enormous fortune over time and subsequently becomes entangled in illicit operations, including drugs, women, and other things. Subsequently, they caught the interest of law authorities, notably the FBI. After an investigation, he lost all his wealth and faced serious repercussions. Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Jordan in the film. The film was financially successful and made over $400 million. 

Genre: Biography, Comedy, Crime
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Key Takeaway: The dangers of unethical practices in the stock market.

2. Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020)

A book named “The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away” was written by journalists Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu. The book’s contents served as the basis for the “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”, which was released in 2020. The series narrates the tale of the largest financial fraud in India, which took place in the early 1990s. Pratik Gandhi played the role of Harshad Mehta. Mehta was well-known for his aggressive investment strategies and market manipulation methods. During his time, the Indian stock market soared to astronomical highs, due to which he was known as the “The Big Bull.” His prowess in manipulating the Indian Banking System and stock prices caught the attention of journalist Sucheta Dalal, portrayed by Shreya Dhanwanthary. She investigated the fraud and released her findings, which led to Harshad Mehta’s arrest, and ultimately, the Indian stock market crashed.

Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Director: Hansal Mehta
Starring: Pratik Gandhi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Hemant Kher
Key Takeaway: The importance of transparency and the potential consequences of exploiting financial loopholes.

3. Margin Call (2011)

This American film narrates the actions performed by the employees at a large Wall Street investment bank for 24 hours during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The movie’s title describes a scenario where an investor must increase the assets pledged as security for a loan after their value drops below a predetermined threshold. Eric Dale, the company’s head of risk management, developed a model that reveals a financial risk that could cause the firm to collapse. He alerted his bosses and other executives to the risk, but they initially ignored it. In an attempt to stay out of bankruptcy, companies strive to sell off their assets by the next day. This film illustrates how financial company mismanagement caused the global share market to crash. 

Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons
Key Takeaway: The risks involved in financial markets and how decisions made in crisis moments can impact the world.

4. Inside Job (2010)

The 2010 documentary Inside Job showcases the circumstances leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The documentary starts with an analysis of prevalent deregulations in the finance industry in the early 1980s. The dangerous aspects of these decisions are explained in the film, including mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps. The film examines the economic bubble and how rising real estate prices encouraged banks to lend money without first determining the borrower’s creditworthiness. In 2007 and 2008, subprime loan defaults caused investment banks like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns to fail, while the government bailed out other institutions like AIG. The film illustrates how senior bank executives disregarded established guidelines, which caused the world stock market to collapse.

Genre: Documentary
Director: Charles Ferguson
Narrated by: Matt Damon
Key Takeaway: The far-reaching consequences of financial corruption and the need for transparency and regulation in the financial industry.

5. Rogue Trader (1999)

Rogue Trader is a movie based on a true story about a reckless trader named Nick Leeson who made financial decisions that caused the UK-based Barings Bank to fail. The autobiography “Rogue Trader: How I Bought the Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World” served as the inspiration for the film. The film starts with the story of a young banker named Nick Lesson, portrayed by Ewan McGregor, who works for Barings Bank and is assigned to Singapore to oversee derivatives trading at the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. Through his aggressive trading, he generated significant profits right away. Afterwards, he started to lose money, but instead of disclosing it, he kept it hidden in a secret account and intended to use riskier wagers to win it back. After placing a large bet on the potential stability of the Japanese market, he lost a significant amount of money—roughly 827 million Euros—when the Japanese stock market experienced a correction in 1995 due to an earthquake in Japan. This event ultimately caused Barings Bank to fail.

Genre: Biography, Drama
Director: James Dearden
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel
Key Takeaway: The dangers of unchecked power and the devastating impact one individual’s actions can have on the financial world.

Conclusion

Many films on the stock market have been made all over the world, but the majority of them are based on the financial crises that occurred in different nations. While some were based on the 2008 financial crisis, others were based on India’s 1992 stock market collapse or the 1995 Japanese market collapse. Every film imparts the wisdom that, despite possible short-term causes for market declines, investors should maintain faith in the stock market because, in the end, it will rise and surpass its prior peak. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)