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Wall Streeters talk about the movies, shows and books that best reflect their work
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Wall Streeters talk about the movies, shows and books that best reflect their work

  • Business Insider selected 25 young professionals aged 35 and under for its list of Wall Street’s rising stars.
  • We asked these newcomers which TV show, book or movie best represented the financial industry.
  • They shared some parallels and even discussed work on non-financial topics.

There is no shortage of colorful characters representing Wall Street. There is the serial killer investment bankerthe corporate raider who declares that “greed is good“, and the Crooked, albeit charismatic, stockbrokerjust to name a few.

Two of them are fictional movie characters and one is based on a real person, but they all shaped the public’s perception of what working on Wall Street could be like.

If you ask successful people at some of the biggest banks, asset managers, trading firms or hedge funds whether they see their reality accurately perceived on screen or in books, they will tell you that working at Wall Street is a little less colorful. that it is often painted.

I don’t know if there’s a great movie or a good book describing life on Wall Street,” Mark Zhu, 34, chief executive of Blackstone, told Business Insider. “Everyday life is a lot more boring than you think. think so. That’s a lot of calls and a lot of emails. There isn’t as much flamboyance or extravagant behavior. It’s almost not movie-worthy. Why would you pay money to watch someone sitting at a computer zooming around? »

So maybe they think all these parties on the HBO show are about 20-something investment bankers.Industry” is a bit of a stretch, but there are still some things that the entertainment industry gets right from time to time.

We asked Wall Street newcomers about the shows, movies or books that best represent their daily lives. Although no performance was perfect, they talked about some of the parallels they saw. Some even shared non-financial references that open a window into their world.

Here are the shows, movies or books that give an insight into what it’s like to work on Wall Street.