Question for all the equity experts out there. I lean toward currencies and futures myself and as a young trader i still have an absolutely enormous amount of information to absorb still. I have a vague understanding of what gordon gekko did in the movie. Used illegal information to perform hostile takeovers to liquidate companies for profit. I'm sure many of you will have a laugh for my misunderstanding of the world of equities and big money take overs but can anyone out there clarify what exactly he did and if it's possible to do it legally? I just would like to learn what other ways people make money in the equities business besides pure price action speculation.
Technically, Gecko didn't do anything illegal. Insider-trading is a regulatory issue, not criminal. The most that can happen is he ends up getting fined a huge amount and have his license suspended by the SEC. It's actually the Bud as an officer in the company that violated the rules by divulging confidential information about the company's future plans.
The intended message of the film didn't work .. the folly of vulgar greed to be rich. The film was far better than that message. The Gordon Gekko character demystifies making money .. at its fastest. Thats right .. he demystifies making money. The film shows unintentionally how people in general imprison themselves .. greed for security first, greed to be part of the ground swell but not to be somebody above and beyond the rest, greed for more hope when it already doesn't work, greed for the mundane over the superior.
"greed is good" a quote from ivan boesky who i hear rumors that gekko was made in the image of. I don't want to be gekko, i think his personality is not one to be envied. All i want to know is the dynamics of what exactly he did to make money because everytime i watch it i don't fully understand.
Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken were the role models for Gordon Gekko. Milken did some shady sh*t in the bond markets with inside info which I think Boesky supplied him. Don't remember the full story, but you can look it up on wikipedia and the web. Boesky is the closer guy to Gekko cause he came up almost from the street with pure hunger which made him do it anything it took to get those dollars. But Milken, who was the junk bond king, had to do some serious BS to have the law finally crack down on him.
The dynamics?......There wasn't anything sophisticated going on. Gekko "traded on inside information", pure and simple. It's implied that he made big money from the info. It's more important to focus on Bud Fox's rise from rags-to-riches-back-to-rags, his relationship with his father and Gekko's competitive nature. Fox's attempt at technical analysis early in the movie was a laugher too. The "shallowness" of the other brokers and managers in the office was accurate. Two thumbs up!
Gordon Gekko is coming back!!!! More on that Wall Street sequel Posted by Clint Morris on May 15, 2006 And yes, it is a sequel. When IESB first got word from Michael Douglas, himself, that another "Wall Street" movie was in the works, some wondered whether the Oscar Winner was actually referring to a straight-up hell-yeah bring-that-shit-on sequel, or a - boo! hiss! - remake, with Douglas's involvement probably limited to executive producing. Had a chat to someone at FOX this past weekend (well my weekend, their Friday) about the film, who confirmed that it's indeed in the works and that it's a sequel. Thank god. It's Douglas. It's Oliver Stone. It's Ed Pressman, producing. "It's a continuation of the Gordon Gecko story....set twenty-odd years later", I'm told. "Basically, it'd start with Gecko coming out of jail - everything caught up with him, as it did most people like him at the end of the 80s - and then having to apply his ways to the very changed world." Apparently, both Douglas and "Wall Street" director Oliver Stone are in the "early stages" of writing the film. As for whether Chuck Sheen will return, to reprise his role from the first film, doesn't sound like it. "No idea, but doubtful. Heard nothing on Sheen. I assume, maybe, the only other person that might return is Sean Young - amusingly enough - as Douglas's wife. Have to wait to see the script, though". Whatever the case, it's good news. A sequel I truly would be keen to see - heard from another source that a "Short Circuit 3" got greenlit recently, something Steve Guttenberg might be involved in, can't say that news got me as damp - and, I'm guessing, something that Douglas's would be keen to see come to fruition. I'm betting a few of you would gladly hand over some cabbage for "Wall Street 2" above anything else - including his most recent effort, "The Sentinel" - that MD has in the cards, right? Just for ol' times sake, let's say it together : The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
But lying about trading on insider info is a crime - just ask Martha Stewart. Bud wasn't an officer of the airline at the time. His father was a union boss and knew about a favorable government ruling that was about to be announced. BTW is that really insider info? I think Bud's father was making an assumption IIRC. Gekko's and Foxx's real crimes I think were using friends and offshore accounts to manipulate stock prices. OP, why don't you just rent the DVD? You might even get a laugh at the huge mobile phones and other "advanced tech" from the 1980s.