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THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

De La Salle University

October 30, 2022

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Summary

In 1987, Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Jordan Belfort, accepts and starts a job as an employee

at a Wall Street brokerage firm. Jordan Belfort established his own business, the Stratton

Oakmont, while still in his twenties at the start of the 1990s. With the assistance of his trusty

lieutenant, Jonah Hill and a number of unauthorized brokers, Jordan Belfort achieves wealth

through his company by duping wealthy investors out of millions of dollars. While Jordan

Belfort and his friends partake in a hedonistic cocktail of sex, drugs, and highs, the FBI and SEC

are looking into his opulent empire as his company gets famous.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

The film “The Wolf of Wall Street” is not suitable for children under the age of 17. Yes, it was a

funny movie in my opinion, but it contained explicit content. Aside from the disturbing scenes,

there are a few words and lessons that I encountered and learned that could play a significant role

in the college program I chose and in guiding me to my future career.

Money does not come cheap. That was one of the most important lessons I took away from the

film “The Wolf of Wall Street”. There is no such thing as “easy money”, and making easy money

has long-term consequences. If you don’t want your life to be ruined, you must play fair and

work hard to achieve your goals and successes. People would do anything for money, just like

Jordan Belfort in the film, who easily earned millions of dollars. How? By engaging in illegal

activities such as stock manipulation and money laundering, he ended up paying the price for his

illegal actions.
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Don’t get me wrong: I have a great deal of admiration for Jordan Belfort. He was a brilliant and

ambitious man who helped many of his colleagues advance in their careers. I admire how he

used his great speaking and communication skills to persuade people to purchase, but as he

became richer and richer by using his expertise, he acted differently than I thought he would. I

discovered that wealth tends to push people away from gratitude and contentment. Jordan

Belfort’s fortune motivated him to become a ruthless drug addict, womanizer, and wife cheater

that is against my values in life.

The film was not only entertaining in terms of comedy and drama, but it was also informative;

despite the profanities, I learned some business terms that will undoubtedly help me in my

course, BS in Financial Management and Institutions. Some financial terms I learned are listed

below:

1. Stocks or Shares

Selling stocks/shares to clients is one of the film’s main topics. It’s how Jordan Belfort

and his company make money. How do we exactly define a stock/share? People can

purchase and sell ownership of a company through the financial product known as a stock

or share. (Ideally, you buy a stock/share when it is cheap and sell it when it is highly

priced). When a company has a high value, you are granted a portion of its profits.

2. Stock Exchange
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The “Stock Exchange”, like shopping malls for products, is a shopping mall for financial

products. Physical and virtual stock exchanges are both possible. Companies must meet a

specific set of criteria before they may list their stocks on a particular stock exchange.

Multiple stock exchanges may allow multinational businesses to list, but each has its own

rules.

3. Blue Chips

Jordan Belfort has mentioned blue chip stocks. The phrase “highest value” is referred to

as “blue chip”, and blue chip stocks are held by well-recognized, financially stable

businesses. They are most likely to be stable, which means they won’t likely experience a

significant loss even if they don’t grow quickly.

4. Pink Sheets

Small or newly established businesses typically trade on the pink sheets, though this is

not always the case. Typically, finding information about these businesses is difficult. As

a result, it raises the risks of investing in “pink sheets”, but also the potential for high

returns.

5. IPO

The movie made several references to IPOs. When a company raises money publicly for

the first time, it engages in an initial public offering. An IPO essentially represents the

change from private to public ownership of a company.

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6. Wall Street

Wall Street was mentioned and shown frequently in the film. I was curious about what

Wall Street really meant, and after doing some research, I discovered that The New York

Stock Exchange was founded on Wall Street. It is now the face of the entire financial and

investment sector. This phrase is also used to disparage large corporations, particularly

large banks.

Despite the explicit content, I enjoyed the film because it piqued my interest in the stock market,

as I was already involved with crypto, which is similar to a stock market in that I used to buy

currencies at a low value and sell them at a high value. I didn’t last because investing

necessitates extensive research and knowledge. I choose finance as my college course because I

know that it will help me in my interest in learning how to understand the market and how to

invest my money wisely in order to have better opportunities. This film astounded and informed

me about some financial terms and lessons that may be useful to me in the future.

References

Joyce. (2022, February 13). The wolf of wall street guide to financial business english. FluentU

Business English Blog. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/business-english/business-english-finance/