Investment Analyst Explains Margin Call

Comments · 1.3K

• TH

  @ThePlainBagel · 3 years ago · pinned

  CORRECTION: I misidentified a classical song in the movie as The Funeral March, and viewers corrected me to indicate that it's actually Chopin's Raindrop Prelude. Apologies! The error has been cropped out of the video.

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• KO

  @kohlithegoat18 · 9 months ago

  Loved it when Jeremy Irons said "It's Margin time" before selling his positions.

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• SE

  @seospider · 3 years ago

  The best scene in the movie for me is when Zachary Quinto asks Kevin Spacey if he has mentioned the impending doomsday in the market to his son, who works at another firm. The look on Spacey's face when he realizes the thought of protecting his son from the crash never even occurred to him is priceless, and tragic.

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• US

  @USM3C · 3 years ago (edited)

  Regarding the last scene with Sam burying  his dog - Sam also mentions to Tuld in the end that if he dug ditches for a living he'd at least have something to show for his life's work. So, there's much symbolism in that last scene with Sam digging that ditch.

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• JE

  @jealva · 3 years ago

  One of the most realistic lines in the movie was at the end when Kevin Spacey agreed to stay at the firm when asked by the CEO and said it was hard to believe but after 37 years, he still needed the money. In my 25+ years on Wall Street (investment banking and private credit), I have found that most people on the Street pretend to be rich but spend everything they make and barely own any assets. In fact, most of their net worth ends up being the stock of their employers and if something goes wrong with their employer’s business, then their annual comp and their net worth take big hits. That plus the rented city apartment, the summer Hamptons rental and their jet cards and pricey lifestyles lead to personal financial catastrophies.

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• CA

  @CallsignEskimo-l3o · 3 years ago

  The two best scenes in this film are Zachary Quinto's character explaining that he was a rocket scientist but investment banking pays better and Stanley Tucci's story about building a bridge.

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• TE

  @terenzo50 · 3 years ago

  Best scene for me was Stanley Tucci sitting on his stoop talking about his character's earlier life building a bridge and what it accomplished for the world.

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• PA

  @patersonplankrd · 1 year ago

  This film was brilliantly performed and produced. It was filmed in one building. Took 17 days to film. The Film grossed well over $50 million on a budget of just $3.5 million. The small budget was assisted by the single filming One Penn Plaza 42nd floor. For those of you not familiar with midtown Manhattan, 4 Penn Plaza is the street address for Madison Square Garden , the arena...The building in which the &nbsp;office space is located is next to the arena.<br>IMO. Jeremy Irons was brilliant in this film. <br>One other factoid, Jeremy Quinto ( Peter Sullivan) was also a producer of this film.

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• WE

  @weirdshibainu · 2 years ago

  I started a home improvement business in 2001 in Nevada and watched this first hand as my customers were progressively getting larger and riskier mortgages up to 2007, to the point they couldn&apos;t even afford window coverings for their new homes. I knew a lot of people in real estate and they were so caught up in their own &quot;genius&quot; &nbsp;( many of whom had never been in real estate prior to 2001) that it was obvious to me that the end was near. Whenever I talked about a &quot;bubble&quot; they looked at me like I was the dumb one. &nbsp;When it crashed, the fall was something to witness. &nbsp;I shut down my business and moved on, but I had zero liabilities on the books when I did.

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• HU

  @HudsonStillwater · 3 years ago

  Good analysis and explanation. &nbsp;I thought the analyst got it wrong at the very end, where he dismisses the dog scene as analogous to a &quot;dog&quot; investment. &nbsp;While I think you could look at it that way, I think the scene where Sam buries his beloved dog is actually intended to evoke his sense of loss regarding life choices, as the dog is symbolic of virtues such as honesty and loyalty.

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• KI

  @KingUnKaged · 3 years ago

  One of the great things about this movie was showing how the hyper financialization of the economy draws people away from more productive areas. Peter and Eric, the only people who see the crash coming, are people who had jobs as a rocket scientist and engineer respectively, but got into finance for the money (something Eric admits he deeply regrets). The people whose jobs are purely money focused like Sam and John openly admit that they don&apos;t even know how the company makes money, and mostly seem to get ahead by behaving badly and leaning on people like Peter and Eric.

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• PR

  @profdc9501 · 3 years ago

  At the beginning of the movie, it is striking how Sam is weeping over his dying dog while his traders are being fired, after which he gives a rousing speech to the remaining traders. &nbsp;It sets the tone for the rest of the movie, that every person involved in the firm cares only about themselves, and what happens to their coworkers, trading partners, or the public is of no consequence. &nbsp;There&apos;s a quote from Wall Street: &quot;and if you need a friend, get a dog,&quot; which here shows for all of their wealth, just how alone and friendless these traders are. It is portrayed that for all their wealth, the traders don&apos;t seem very happy, and that no matter how much they make, there is never enough, and always more things to be coveted and that they are never satisfied comparing themselves to their peers. &nbsp;For all their machinations, they are left unhappy burying a dead dog.

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