Rogue Trader
With rogue traders in the news anew, suddenly Rogue Trader (1999) feels freshly relevant. It starred Ewan McGregor (afterTrainspotting, before Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Nick Leeson, a 27-year-old whose catastrophic $1.4 billion loss brought 233-year-old Barings, Britain’s oldest investment bank, to its knees overnight. The movie’s reviews were decidedly mediocre but Leeson’s life since being sentenced to six-plus years in a Singapore prison cell is surely sequel-worthy. His wife swiftly filed for divorce. Then came a diagnosis of colon cancer. And this year, after a spell as CEO of an Irish soccer team, a by now bald and bespectacled Leeson amusingly made partner in a financial advisory firm.
S&P 500 Index that year: up 21.04 percent. Rotten Tomatoes rating: 33 percent.
See the rest of the Top 9 Movies About Finance and Trading at Minyanville.
