Finance in Movies and TV/Excel for Finance

The first part of the discussion should be fun. Many of you without a background in finance may have gotten your impression of the finance world from TV or movies. Even the highly prestigious Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute has published Top 20 Films about Finance: From Crisis to Con Men.

Share what your impressions are based on a recent TV show or movie, or one of the movies from the CFA Institute’s list if you can find one of the movies online. If you haven’t watched anything finance-related lately, check out the one of these movies: The Big Short, Margin Call, or Wall Street (the original one, not the awful sequel). TV shows include Billions or some early episodes of Silicon Valley that involve getting finance for the new company. Post your thoughts in the first week of the module.

For the second week of the module, dig into the assignments and start to use Microsoft Excel. There are some videos on Excel in the background reading page, but find an additional video or two that helps you get started. Share the link with your classmate and discuss the usefulness of the video you found.

Module 1 Week 1

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posted Oct 8, 2018 11:13 AM

Hello Class,

To be honest, I've never seen any of the movies listed in the Top 20 Films about Finance: From Crisis to Con Men (Hayat, 2013). However, one of my favorite TV shows is primarily involved around finances: Shark Tank. To those who are unaware of this show and according to CNBC (n.d.), it's a reality TV show where an entrepreneur presents his/her business to a panel of five investors (also known as sharks) and persuade them to invest a specific amount of capital and come into the business as a partner. Once the entrepreneur finishes the presentation, the "sharks" ask the entrepreneur(s) more questions about the business including: when and why the business started, the entrepreneur's background, amount of sales and profit, what to do with the capital if a "shark" agrees to invest, etc.

As someone who works in the accounting field, I appreciate the references to revenue/sales, profits, margins, etc. throughout the show. While it's easy to tell that parts of the show are "made for TV," this show does a great job showing to the average viewer how business works from a realistic perspective. These are real businesses with real people attached to these businesses who want to make a better life for them and their families by providing a product or service that can enhance the lives of many people across the country (and across the world if applicable).

References

Hayat, U. (2013, Sept. 20). Top 20 Films about Finance: From Crisis to Con Men. CFA Institute. Retrieved from https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2013/09/20/20-finance-films-for-entertainment-and-education/

Skark Tank – Home. (n.d.). CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/shark-tank/

MOD1 Week1

Contains unread posts

posted Oct 8, 2018 2:59 PM

Hello Class!

As it states in the discussion I do not have a background in finance, however, it has always fascinated me. Being in the military I have a different understanding of finances as the money we are granted is money spent. There is usually no more given throughout the fiscal year and at the end of the year if you don’t spend it you loose it, in fact the money you don’t spend will usually be subtracted from the next years budget as they think if you didn’t spent it you don’t need it. So its fair to say I have a lot to learn in finance.

In regards to the discussion I have seen Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, Enron, and floored. What intrigues me the most about finance is most of the movies is about how much money someone can make in the industry and how crooked it is. Most of these movies start off about the lavish lives people on Wall Street live, then go on about all the bad stuff that goes on in the financial world. That's why it sparks so much interest with me. I wonder how much of the stuff is true, then you see all the stuff in the news about financial people in all the legal trouble and I tend to believe some of it is true. Finance is one of the subjects I am hungry to learn about but terrified to implement.

Cheers!

Den