Why this order
A comedy first, because the closing trade in it is a better explanation of delivery and margin than any textbook page. Margin Call then puts a risk limit on it. The middle two are the business itself. Floored is deliberately last: it is the one that asks what happens to the job, and it is a more honest question after you have spent four titles wanting it.
The 6 of them, in order
1
Trading Places
1983RecommendedFilmStart hereAn evening
Futures delivery and a corner, explained by accident. Watch the last fifteen minutes twice.
What to notice. A corner works because someone must deliver what they have sold.
A comedy that ends in a corner on orange juice futures, and it gets the mechanics right. The closing trade is a genuinely sound explanation of margin, delivery and what a squeeze feels like from the wrong side.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It is the least painful way to arrive understanding futures delivery, which commodities and markets desks do ask about.
2
Margin Call
2011EssentialFilmStart hereAn evening
What a limit is, who it wakes up, and what a fire sale does to a market.
What to notice. A risk limit is a decision about who has to be woken up.
One night on a trading floor as a firm decides to sell a book it knows is worthless. The best study anywhere of risk limits, a VaR breach and how bad information travels up a bank.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It gives you a concrete answer to what a risk function is for, which trips up most candidates applying to markets divisions.
3
Market Wizards
Jack D. SchwagerRecommendedBookIntermediate
Traders who agree on nothing except risk control, which is the answer to how you would trade.
What to notice. Traders who agree on nothing else all agree about risk control.
Interviews with traders who made money in incompatible ways, which is the point of it. Read across the volumes and the only factor left in common is risk control.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It stops you claiming there is one right way to trade, which is the answer a markets interviewer is hoping you will not give.
4
The World for Sale
Javier Blas and Jack FarchyEssentialBookIntermediate
Physical commodities: arbitrage in place and time, not a view on direction.
What to notice. Physical traders make money on logistics and access, not on a price view.
Commodity traders as the least visible and most consequential firms on earth. Read it before any physical commodities or trading house interview.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
Commodity houses ask what they actually do. Arbitraging place and time, not direction, is the answer they are waiting for.
5
Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga
2022RecommendedSeriesIntermediateA few evenings
Clearing, collateral and why a broker halts buying. Almost nobody gets past the conspiracy answer.
What to notice. Settlement takes days, and the collateral call lands before it clears.
Three episodes on the squeeze, the broker that halted buying and the reason it did. The clearing and settlement question it raises is the one most candidates cannot answer.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
Why a broker halted buying is a favourite markets question, and almost nobody gets past the conspiracy answer to the collateral one.
6
Floored
2009RecommendedDocumentaryIntermediateAn evening
Last. What happened to the previous generation of this job, and the honest version of the automation question.
What to notice. A skill is only worth what the market structure around it allows.
Chicago pit traders as electronic markets take their living away. The best film on what happens to a skill when the market structure that made it valuable disappears, which is not a historical question.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It is the most honest thing to have watched before answering what you think automation does to the seat you are applying for.