I. Introduction
The film takes place on Wall Street in New York in the 1980s. The protagonist, Bud, is a grass-roots stock manager who has worked in the Wall Street Jackpot Antway shortly after graduating from New York University. , because of his perseverance and courage, he got acquainted with Geiger, the biggest stock on Wall Street, and changed his life trajectory since then. He used his work and life resources to help Geiger obtain inside information by any means, and Geiger used information to conduct insider information. Trading, profiteering in the stock market, and manipulating stock prices and markets to beat competitors. But Budd and Geiger had a conflict of interest over the Blue Star Airline takeover, where Budd's father was the union president. When they learned that Geiger was going to liquidate Blue Star after acquiring Blue Star, Bud and Geiger, who still had consciences, turned their faces and used the knowledge that Geiger had taught, and used similar means to unite Geiger's opponents, Sir Wildman and Geiger. The Blue Star Union came to fight back against Guyger. After Guyger learned of all this, he reported Bud's insider trading to the police in retaliation for Bud's betrayal.
2. Character Analysis
(1) Bud Fox
As the protagonist of the film, Budd is a graduate of New York University, a frustrated stock manager who is fledgling on Wall Street, and met Geiger, a big man on Wall Street, in an opportunity, and was appreciated by Geiger and became his partner. Helped Geiger to obtain inside information, roamed the edge of the law to conduct insider trading, and made huge profits in the stock market, but in the acquisition of the Blue Star company where Bard's father worked, Geiger and Bard had a serious conflict of interest, and the conscience still existed. Bud retaliates with his own way, giving Guyger a severe blow, and Guyger retaliates against Bud. Bud was eventually imprisoned for suspected stock fraud and illegal insider trading.
Each of us can see our own shadow more or less in Bud. He is simple and honest, and he has trust and feelings for others. She has a conscience, is smart and diligent, and hopes to use this to lead a better life for herself and her family, win respect, and exchange for a mansion and love. But what I have to say is that he is also greedy, and he does not pay enough attention to money, luxury, beauty and reputation, business ethics and the law. But he eventually realized that conscience, trust, affection and morality are far more important than money, reputation, and desire for property, which also prompted him to break with Geiger, and finally said to Geiger: "I just realized that I am just a Pakistani. De Fox, as much as I would love to be Gordon Geiger, I'll always be just Bud Fox."
(2) Gordon Geiger
He is a very talented, cold-blooded, greedy, self-confident, aggressive, and unscrupulous financial bigwig. He used insider trading to manipulate the stock market to earn a lot of ill-gotten wealth, and he was invincible in the financial market. By chance, he met Bud, and he used Bud to teach him how to obtain inside information, conduct insider trading, and manipulate the stock market. At the same time, he told Bud about his outlook on life and values, and wanted to make Bud the second Geiger, but broke with Bud in a conflict of interest. Finally, because of Bud's report, the financial tycoon was also involved in the suspected stock insider in the transaction lawsuit.
He is greedy and proud of it. As he gave in the powerful speech in the film: "Greed is good, greed is right, greed is useful, greed can sort everything out, cut through all obstacles and go straight to the essence of evolution. Greed is where all forms are. Be greedy for life, be greedy for love, and even more greedy for knowledge. Greed inspires the upward motivation of human beings. Remember my words, not only can you save Dida Paper, but also save the dysfunctional United States." He added He is ruthless and has long lost trust in people. He once said to Bud: "You must remember that people love animals, but they can never stand the same kind. If you need a friend, get a dog. For him, the joy and sense of achievement of victory in the battlefield without gunpowder smoke, for him, money is the spoils of war in this war.
Business ethics and the law all give way to his greed and desire for achievement. He does not believe in obeying business rules, ethics and laws. His father has been conscientious and busy all his life, living in poverty and died of overwork at the age of 49. His trust has long since followed. Buried with his father's death. And he himself has made a lot of money by virtue of his knowledgeable inside information, unique vision, and powerful stock manipulation skills. However, it is precisely because of the long-term disregard of ethical laws, blurred legal boundaries, and wandering on the edge of the law that they eventually reap the consequences.
(3) Sir Lawrence Wideman
A British stock market sniper is almost the same person as Geiger. He once bribed Geiger's secretary, obtained his inside information, and embezzled Geiger's shares in RDL Pharmaceuticals. In the acquisition of Ange Steel, Geiger retaliated and had to buy back the original shares from Geiger at a higher price. In the end, he cooperated with Bud to acquire the Blue Star Company and retaliated against Geiger.
(4) Carl Fox
The father of the protagonist, Bud, is also the chairman of the labor union of Bluestar. He is upright and kind, dedicated, diligent, ordinary and hard-working all his life. He is responsible for his family and company employees all his life, and supports them. When he learns that Bluestar To be bought by Geiger, a greedy capitalist, and admitted to the hospital after having a heart attack.
As the chairman of the labor union of Bluestar, he has worked conscientiously and diligently for decades, and has always played a role as a backer for employees. As Bud's father, he doesn't speak much in life, but he is upright and kind, and supports his family with a green shade. It even influenced Bard subtly. The reason why Bard could not become Geiger was because under the influence of his father, Bard's conscience still existed and he was still kind.
The importance of financial ethics
(1) The necessity of financial ethics
The ethics involved in the film are mainly financial ethics. In a broad sense, financial ethics is the moral code that the subjects participating in financial activities and their stakeholders should follow. The financial ethics system mainly includes four aspects: fairness, justice, openness and credibility mechanism. Compared with the law, financial ethics constrains practitioners and stakeholders from the ethical point of view.
It is true that capital is objective. Economist Samuelson said: "Capital is a different form of production factor, which has no moral and ethical nature, that is, there is no distinction between good and evil." Since capital came to the world, it has It is naturally profitable and expansive. In the film, Geiger's greed for capital, and what he did confirms the profit of capital, "only money is important, everything else is empty talk". However, the capital market, as a place for capital transactions, must have certain transaction rules, and the transaction rules must be integrated into ethical requirements. In countries with developed civilization and rule of law, their rules must show more ethics and morality.
From another point of view, the existence of ethics and morality is to make up for the vacancy of law. Financial supervision is very mandatory, incomplete and lagging. As a code of conduct for practitioners and stakeholders, financial ethics is more flexible, comprehensive and pre-regulated.
(2) The necessity of ethics in the process of practical development
Having a correct view of ethics and morality is the fundamental guarantee for the long-term development of enterprises and individuals. The huge profits obtained by ignoring ethics and laws are only temporary, but hidden dangers have long been buried behind the huge profits. Clang to jail.
Bud, the protagonist of this film, still has ethics and laws in his heart, but it is shaken by the temptation of money, beauty, mansions, and fame. He knew that illegal insider trading would disrupt the market order, unfair and unfair, but his money status made him do things he didn't want to do. He began to take advantage of his position to use his colleagues and friends around him to provide Geiger with insider information, help Geiger illegal insider trading, manipulate stock prices behind the scenes, attack competitors, and make huge profits. As a result, he temporarily got the money, status, and fame he wanted in the process. But it was also because his actions violated the law. Along with the break between him and Guyger, Guyger reported his actions. After the incident, he was also imprisoned, and his ill-gotten wealth vanished. Of course, Geiger, who has no moral values and ignores the law and market order, is also involved in stock fraud, and he will face legal sanctions and moral condemnation. From this point of view, sticking to ethics and abiding by the law is the long-term plan for the development of individuals and enterprises, and ignoring ethics and laws will eventually be like Sanlu milk powder and longevity creatures.
The unethical behavior of the financial market will endanger the real economy, and the real economy will appear fragile in the face of financial leverage. Just like the acquisition of Blue Star in the movie, capitalists can use financial leverage to complete the acquisition, and after the acquisition is completed, after the acquisition of control is achieved Capitalists can dispose of Blue Star Company at will, liquidate Blue Star Company, and dispose of fixed assets. The root of all this lies in the lack of ethics and morality, and the perfidy of capitalists. To develop the country's real economy, it must improve ethical norms and regulate the financial market.
Adhering to ethics and laws is the long-term guarantee for enterprise development, and there are not a few companies that adhere to ethics and laws, like Alibaba. While making profits, Ali has not forgotten that the acquisition of wealth comes from the society, and it should also repay the society. In May 2010, Alibaba announced that it would allocate 0.3% of the group's annual revenue as a public welfare fund for environmental protection, which is the first environmental protection fund for a domestic Internet company. On September 8, 2018, at Alibaba's 18th anniversary annual meeting, He Jiong led more than 40,000 Alibaba employees to promote the "Three Hours for Everyone" public welfare platform to the whole society. Every employee in Alibaba must complete at least three hours each year. hours of charitable activities. As well as the Ant Forest and Ant Manor around us, public welfare seems to have been integrated into the blood of every Ali person. Ali has to say that it has also won a good reputation in the industry and social effects. The Double Eleven event has changed from a commercial event to a festival for Chinese young people.
4. The harm of insider trading in the capital market
The content that runs through the whole film is insider trading, and insider trading uses insider information. Insider information refers to substantive information that has not been announced to the public. This information is usually related to the stock price of a listed company and will have an impact on the company's stock price. According to US law, those who have inside information cannot use it to buy and sell stocks before it is announced, but should, like other stock holders, wait for the news to be released before trading stocks. This indicates the illegality of insider trading.
The essence of insider trading is to ignore fair, just and open financial ethics, and all countries have similar regulations on the illegality of insider trading. The laws of various countries are the embodiment of ethics and morality. To maintain the financial ethics of the "Three Publics" and establish a good market order, ethics and morality must be reflected in the law.
The harm of insider trading can be seen from the following aspects. In the first aspect, the wonderful thing about this film is that it shows us how the protagonists Bud and Geiger use their positions to facilitate the use of contacts around them, and leak the inside information of listed companies to the people around them, so as to drive up the stock price or drive down the stock price. Effect. At the same time, this is also the scary part of insider trading. Large-scale insider trading is likely to cause fluctuations in the financial market, allowing the stock market to be arbitrarily manipulated by some ulterior motives. The biggest victim of stock market instability is the majority of investors. In the acquisition of Anger Steel, Guyger learned through Bard that Wildman was going to buy Anger Steel. In order to retaliate against Wildman, Guyger frantically bought Anger Steel when the stock price was around $50 per share. After that, he used Geiger to release insider information, used his personal relationships to launch large-scale insider transactions, drive up the stock price, and finally forced Wildman to buy back the stock from him at the highest liquidation value of $80 per share. After negotiation, it was finally traded at $71.50, and Geiger earned as much as $21.50 per share by manipulating the stock price through insider trading. But investors who don't know insider information in this stock price war have undoubtedly become their cannon fodder.
The second harm of insider trading is to disrupt the order of stock market transactions and ignore the principles of fair, just and open trading. For stock investors, information plays a vital role in stock trading. Insider trading means that some people react before others after learning the insider information. They either buy at a low price or sell at a high price. After the information is made public, they will make huge profits or reduce losses. This obviously violates the principle of fair transaction. There is a scene in the movie where Bud initially revealed to Guyger that Bluestar had won a lawsuit against a plane crash, and that the outcome of the lawsuit would be favorable for Bluestar to open up a new route. make a fortune. And for uninformed investors, the opportunity cost loss is huge.
V. Analysis of Conflict of Interests
The biggest conflict in the film is the disagreement between Budd and Guyger over the disposal of Blue Star after the acquisition. Budd hopes to persuade the union, reduce employee wages, optimize internal management, and save money through generous capital after the acquisition of Blue Star. Jin applied for a loan from the bank, which turned Blue Star into a profit. And Geiger wants to sell the company's fixed assets after getting Blue Star, repay the bank loan, and liquidate Blue Star in the future. Inflated and greedy Guyger wants to win and achieve a sense of achievement in the zero-sum game of Blue Star's acquisition, and to get money. In order to fulfill his promise to his father and employees, and to maintain the trust between people, Bud, who still has a conscience and emotion, decides to break with Guyger and use the methods that Guyger once taught him to save Blue Star.
Bud is grateful for everything that Guyger has provided him. Guyger appreciates him, teaches him how stocks work, how to beat his opponents in business battles, and gives him money, status, respect, beauty, and rules for dealing with people. But Bud was always Bud, who had feelings, a conscience, a trust in others, and kept his promises. In the dilemma between conscience and greed, Bud chooses to be a person with conscience and justice.
The conflict between Budd and Geiger is fundamentally a conflict between the return of ethics and the inflated selfishness. It is true that Budd used an improper method in the process of conscience awakening, using Geiger's method to retaliate with his own words. However, his starting point is correct, and the purpose is to take responsibility for his father and Blue Star employees. In the end, he also paid the price for his misconduct and accepted the legal sanctions indifferently.
Six, film evaluation
The film truly and expertly exposed the dark side of the stock market to us, allowing us to see a microcosm of Wall Street in the 1980s. The plot arrangement is compact, well-structured and logical. From the acquaintance of Bud and Guyger, to the two becoming partners and fighting together, to the two parting ways due to conflict of interest, to the arrest of Bud and Guyger, there is no delay. Neat. The big-headed computer and the green market in the New York Stock Exchange were opened. The teller was buried in filling out the documents, and the investors gathered around with their heads bowed and whispered. In a few seconds, the main financial hub of the United States was outlined. The setting of the scene is even more meticulous. The rolling stock prices of the companies that Bud works for all appear in 1/8 and its integer multiples, because according to the requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the minimum unit of stock quotation is 1/8 of US dollars and its integers. times.
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