Sometimes, you will need an entertainment reference that allows you to learn more and more about finance. The entertainment reference here means it could be anything, one of them is movies. In fact, there are a number of movies that talk about finance, including the way or the trouble of being CFA.
By watching finance movies, these will give you an enlightenment and knowledge about CFA and also various finance lessons you can take from the movies. No worries! This post will show you some finance movies that are great to watch for CFA candidates. Okay, let’s see our post below!
1) Inside Job
- Year: 2010
- Genre: Documentary
- Duration: 105 minutes
- Story: Financial crisis and regulation
Inside Job movies was narrated by Matt Damon that makes the case that the crisis could have been prevented if the regulation had been adequate. It is filmed on-location in the United States, England, Iceland, China, Singapore and France.
One of the popular statements in the movie says ‘This crisis was not an accident. It was caused by an out-of-control industry.’ This documentary film is based on research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, journalists, politicians and academics.
This movie tracks the rise of a rogue industry that has corrupted politics, academia and regulations that follows a well-structured approach consisting of five parts and talks in depth topics such as the housing bubble market and the regulation of financial markets.
2) Too Big to Fail
- Year: 2011
- Genre: Drama
- Duration: 99 minutes
- Story: Systemic Risk
Too Big to Fail is a finance film based on the book with the same title that tells about the financial crisis, the subsequent bank bailouts and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Just like other films, this movie is extremely critical of Wall Street.
One of the popular statements in the movie that is said by the US Treasury Secretary is ‘We are not bailing out Lehman. Wall Street has a gambling problem. If the government keeps covering their losses, they never learn anything.’
3) It’s a Wonderful Life
- Year: 1946
- Genre: Drama
- Duration: 130 minutes
- Story: Community Bank
It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic movie that was released in the year after World War II formally ended. This film stars James Stewart who plays George Bailey, an all-around honest and loveable guy.
George Bailey manages a community finance operation, the Bailey Building & Loan Association. However, he attempts suicide since his financial institution in ruins and his heart broken. Interestingly, the popularity of this film encouraged prominent economist Laurence Kotlikoff to name his 2010 book Jimmy Stewart Is Dead.
4) Wall Street Warriors
- Year: 2006
- Genre: Documentary Series
- Duration: 30 minutes each
- Story: Entrepreneurship
Wall Street Warriors talks about the lives of real and ambitious people who are attempting to succeed on Wall Street. This film features the day trader, the analyst, the stockbroker, the options broker, the dealmaker, the fund manager and many more.
The people who are from different countries of origin on Wall Street have their own goal to compete and win. Their goal is not only a job, but it is so competitive and the financial and emotional stakes so high. People on Wall Street are all pursuing lots of money and facing lots of stress.
5) Wall Street
- Year: 1987
- Genre: Drama
- Duration: 126 minutes
- Story: Insider Trading
This film is the CAPM of finance films where ‘Everyone in finance is supposed to know it, and whether it is any good is no longer the point.’ This movie talks about making fast money and a lot of it through insider trading.
These brief lines in this movie are about ‘Greed’ that is used by the FBI in an insider-trading public service announcement which features Michael Douglass who played Gekko.
6) Billion Dollar Day
- Year: 1986
- Genre: Documentary
- Duration: 30 minutes
- Story: Forex Trading
This documentary film talks about a day in the life of three foreign exchange traders that are based in London, New York and Hong Kong. This film uncovers the majority of traders as gamblers.
This movie shows the traders who are not working from any economic analysis, but mostly their hunches about what other traders are doing. If you watch this movie, you will realize how much the physical world and financial markets’ infrastructure have increased since then.
7) The Big Short
- Year: 2015
- Genre: Biography, Drama, Comedy
- Duration: 130 minutes
- Story: 2018 Financial Crisis, Credit Defaults Swaps, Ethics, Collateralized debt Obligations
This movie talks about Michael Burry who has traded traditional office attire for shorts, bare feet and a Supercuts haircut. Burry trusts that the US housing market is established on a bubble which will burst within the next few years.
Michael Burry continues to bet against the housing market with the banks. He is more than happy to accept his proposal for something which has never occurred in American History.
8) Trillion Dollar Bet
- Year: 2000
- Genre: Documentary
- Duration: 48 minutes
- Story: Option pricing
Trillion Dollar Bet tells the story of the Black-Scholes-Merton options pricing formula, the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) and physics envy in finance.
The brief line available in this movie is ‘Capitalism was on the march. The combination of mathematics and money, it seemed, was unstoppable.’
9) Becoming Warren Buffett
- Year: 2017
- Genre: Documentary, Biography
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Story: Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger
This movie talks about a numbers-obsessed Nebraska kid to be one of the most successful investors in the world. This film is not focused on investing per se, but there are many words of wisdom dotted throughout which will give serious food-for-thought afterwards.
10) Other People’s Money
- Year: 1991
- Genre: Comedy
- Duration: 103 minutes
- Story: Corporate takeover
This comedy movie shows a clash between the so-called real economy and the financial markets as a corporate raider. It talks about a manufacturing unit that is facing obsolescence and is whether the jobs and the unit that it has created would be liquidated to satisfy the shareholders or whether there is some way to return it to profitability. The Other People’s Money has numerous finance lessons to offer, especially in company valuation.
Okay, those are some finance movies that are perfect to watch for CFA candidates, as those films are inspiring.
