25 December 2019, | AtoZ Markets – Traders often treat finance and trading movies as an extra pinch of inspiration. Although many of these movies are pretty much out of this world, they give you that extra drive! These movies can motivate you when you are down or when you are just looking for a New Year's resolution. Additionally, some of these movies will help you to become open-minded, avoid common trading mistakes. Let's be honest, we all at some point need a break from charts to recharge ourselves, and there is no better way to do is by watching a Forex themed trading movie.
In any case, it is not recommended to trade during holiday season especially the Christmas Holidays. Your strategy is likely not to be ready for the strange liquidity of the holiday season.
Forex themed Movies to Watch this Christmas
Many trading movies could represent the Forex industry too. Of course, you need to differentiate movies from reality, but you can still learn some lessons. Here are my top 5 trading movies for this holiday season:
- Wall Street: Money Never Sleep
- Becoming Warren Buffett
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- Rogue Trader
- Too Big to Fail
#1 Wall Street: Money Never Sleep
This movie provides lessons on morality, greed, and money. As we know, fear and greed are some of the biggest influencers in a trading career. This movie teaches how adverse the impact of greed would be for a trader.
In this movie, Gordon Gekko spent a decade in jail due to his insider trading on Wall Street during the late eighties and early nineties. However, he wrote a book about his trading experience and the pending problems related to the economy. Therefore, he finds himself back in the spotlight. He also takes attention from Jacob Moore, a stock trader dating Gekko's daughter, Winnie. Jacob asks if Winnie wants to reconcile with her father, but she refused.
When Jacob's employer bank denied a bailout, causing Jacob's mentor to commit suicide, Jacob seeks Gekko for advice. Gekko advises Jacob that Bretton James, the head of a rival firm, helped to deny the bailout by scattering rumors. Therefore, Jacob seeks Gekko's help to destroy Bretton's company in revenge. Gekko agrees to help Jacob, but only if Jacob can manage Winnie to agree to patch their relationship.
To get closer to Bretton, Jacob creates some rumor-spreading of his own. He tries to use this alliance to his advantage, trying to influence Bretton to invest in Jacob's fusion energy research. However, when the shifty Bretton decides to back out, Jacob is left between a rock and a hard place. So does he trust the greedy Gordon Gekko?
#2 Becoming Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people in the present world. This trader inspiring movie is a documentary by HBO. The film covers secrets behind the success of Warren Buffet from the beginning to the spine of the feature-length. Besides having tremendous wealth and influence, Buffett owns a good-natured human touch. He drives himself to work every day, and like to have an inexpensive breakfast sandwich from the local McDonalds along the way. However, behind the pleasantly humble exterior, he is one of the most brilliant businessmen.
His ambitions have begun at an early age by traveling door to door to sell newspapers, bubble gum, and soda pop. This documentary film shows how he filed the first tax return at the age of 13, and started stock trading at the age of 20. Through pure determination and hard work, he overcame his lacking and became the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a globe's most recognizable holding company. The film also features interviews with Buffett's family members, friends, and colleagues whose comments accomplish the circle of his complex narrative.
The centerpiece of the film is a revealing conversation with the man himself. On that conversation, Buffet expressed appreciation for those who endowed him to succeed in his personal and business-related life. In his plain-spoken, he sheds light on what it takes to achieve wealth in all aspects of his life. He expressed his joy when he was lucky to meet his wife and buying his first home. In addition to that, Buffett has committed many of his fortunes to charitable organizations and desires other billionaires to do the same.
Overall, this movie explains how a successful person takes decisions in a trading career as well as real life. He is the perfect example of a struggling life to become a billionaire by taking the trade as a career. Therefore, you can earn a good lesson by listing to the master himself this Christmas.
#3 The Wolf of Wall Street
A trader’s movie list isn’t complete without The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie is a biographical black comedy tracking of Jordan Belfort. In this movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of Jordan Belfort with a real-life story of a criminal’s rise from a shady stockbroker.
In this movie, Jordan Belfort takes an entry-level job in 1987 at a Wall Street brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, at the age of 20, Belfort starts his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. With his trusted deputy and a merry band of brokers, he makes a huge gain by cheating wealthy investors. However, while Belfort and his buddies participate in a hedonistic brew of sex, drugs, and crimes, the SEC and the FBI close his empire of excess.
In addition to this, Wolf provides a dizzying sight of the life of one of the most successful Wall Street job holders of all time. But there’s a dark side behind this, and Wolf does a great job of portraying that. Behind the cocaine, booze, prostitutes and billions of dollars is a man slowly untying. This makes the movie hilarious, but also reminds us that trading is not all about life. A trader should work hard to make a sustainable profit from the Forex market. However, there is a life beyond trading and making millions of dollars. If you’re having trouble balancing your trading life with personal life, then you need to check out Belfort’s hideous story.
#4 Rogue Trader
Rogue Trader is one of the best Forex Trading Movies ever. Traders are familiar with the name of Nick Leeson, a rogue trader who bankrupted Barings Bank in 1995. The movie Rogue Trader opens with Nick Leeson and explains how someone from the middle-class family ended up working for the oldest merchant bank in the world.
Ewan McGregor represents the real-life exploits of Nick Leeson, who played his role in the downfall of Barings Bank. This movie also includes one of the largest financial disasters of the nineties, encapsulates the economic and social changes of a riotous period. Rogue Trader is a cautionary tale portraying Leeson’s frightening moves. While offering Leeson’s ability to hide $1.3 billion in trading losses. It also shows the concerns of the young trader’s complete and absolute carelessness. If there is a silver coating, it’s that risk management is an essential skill for traders to master. Nick Leeson’s story demonstrates this important message in this movie.
Ewan McGregor plays an exciting role in this movie and also the actors who played Nick's management. Furthermore, the movie is also well directed. This deeply delivers the emotional aspects of trading. You can learn a great deal of trading by watching our top 5 Forex Movies to Watch this Christmas. It will show you the impact of fear and greed on your judgment, and it will show you the price you would pay for taking trades against the trend.
#5 Too Big to Fail
Too Big To Fail chronicles the 2008 financial crisis, although from a slightly different lens. It shows how catching the trend before it starts can give great results. However, at the same time, it shows how insane it could be to go against the trend.
This movie looks at the beginning of the financial crisis after the subprime mortgage industry went up. It begins with the decision that let Lehman Brothers to fail in 2008 and the implication of this on the entire industry. Some other financial market kingpins are shown in the movie, including Warren Buffet, Ben Bernanke, and Dick Fuld.
William Hurt as Treasury Secretary gives his best performance in a very long time. He captures Paulson's humanity and threat without missing a beat. Paul Giamatti as FED Chairman is also terrific, playing the understated South Carolinian with awkward seriousness. Ed Asner is horrible as Warren Buffett, pretense it up to the point of awkwardness.
The movie is similar to the book in that it takes a sort of Bob Woodwardian "this is what happened", which is not preachy and not partisan. However, this movie indicates how the financial crisis impact on the economic and social environment. A trader has much to learn from this movie which includes the geopolitical impact on the market and the impact of uncertainties in the market.
Conclusion
The Forex market is a fascinating place. So often, something disgraceful happens that it ends up making the big screen. The above-mentioned flicks will be sure to entertain you and may also offer you some important lessons along the way. Trading is all about psychological games. Therefore, it is a must for traders to gather knowledge from real-life stories.
Which movie will you watch first? Let us know in the comments section below.