this show gives hope to aspiring screenwriters everywhere. if this junk can make it on a major network, you've got a shot:

Pick up the dog crap.

"lol what?"

Pick up the dog crap.

"Nah."

<Soliloquy on government>

Pick up the dog crap with your bare hands.

"Ok."

that dog **** scene was lol stupid.
IRL dude tells him to go **** himself, then possibly goes to news and reports how the DA tried to scare him into picking up dog **** with his bare hands.

you're going to be Brian Doyle

Getting more Soprano-like with every episode.

i enjoyed the 3rd episode, dog**** scene was silly but i didnt mind that much

I like it so far. Giamatti obv a lot of the reason, but I also like the other characters and find the story interesting.

omg Malin Akerman is horrible at acting. Everything she does feels flat

3rd episode was pretty bad imo, I liked the first 2

4th episode is way better than 3rd episode. Revealed more about Axe's character. I'm bullish on this show right now.

Pretty elite episode tonight. The language was probably confusing to the casual viewer though that knows nothing about trading

been a bad, bad year for stan beeman

I understand the basics of the short squeeze (only to the extent of them somehow driving up the stock prices to force a margin call) but can someone explain

A) how his dad did it (did he simply start buying up a ton to try n artificially manipulate demand?)

and

B) what the deal was with him borrowing stock in order to keep his short portion?
why couldn't he just send in money to maintain his margins?
and what was the deal he made with the guy in order to borrow his stock?

sorry I'm an absolute noob wrt finance.

A: his dad started a buyout rumor, got a friendly analyst to upgrade the stock immensely, and started buying the stock, the combination of which sent it flying upward.

this in turn triggered an SEC investigation, and all of this apparently happened in a single day which was very lol as this would play out over weeks or months. obv what the father did was highly illegal, as is what Axe did shorting the stock with material, inside information.

(there are parallels in this episode to an actual real life short/long battle, minus the illegal stufff. a company called Herbalife is being shorted by one of the most famous hedge fund guys who calls it a ponzi scheme, and a rival hedge fund guy who doesn't like him got a huge position in the stock and took a board seat, which triggered a bit of a short squeeze and a lot of pain for the first hedge fund guy)

B. this would never really happen to a hedge fund of his magnitude, and yes if it ever were to happen, they could simply put up more cash. but the show got around that by claiming that their prime broker was being forced to do it by his by boss, presumably at the behest of the dad.

edit: and they also said his firm was highly leveraged, which would make this slightly more realistic, as it greatly magnifies any big moves in one of your positions.

Best episode so far. Axe was in almost every scene and Damien Lewis is bringing it.

Very glad that the vocalist chick story seemed to end, I would have hated for that to be a multi episode arc.

Also glad with how quickly they wrapped up the story of the mole.

Ya that was indeed the best of the 4 episodes, mostly because they finally cut down the cheese and added in a bit more emotion.

awesome ty.
I was only paying pseudo attention so totally missed all the stuff with his dad and the analyst and buy out rumors heh.

one last question tho, what deal did he have to make with the dude he borrowed the stock from and why would the guy let him borrow it instead of making him buy it or whatever once he finds out the one and only axe is so certain it's gonna tank?
wouldn't that dude want to gtfo of his long position while the getting was good?

they literally speak chinese half the episode

He charged him what is essentially a very large vig to make the trade/bet.

Best not to analyze it too much, because they are taking a lot of liberties with the trading.

BTW the far more lucrative way to bet against something if you think a collapse is imminent is to buy put options. Low cost, high potential return.

what did paul giamatti's dad do that was illegal? didnt he just buy stocks?

it was a pump and dump/stock manipulation

he started a fake buyout rumor and got an analyst to upgrade it, never intended to hold the stock, just wanted a quick buck & forcing axe to cover his short at a huge loss

chick at Metallica concert storyline was awful

Yea, it's kinda weird, it's like that for almost everyone I'm sure, but I'd bet almost everyone into finance finds the market talk incredibly cheesy/over the top

Ya that was for sure the low point of the episode

at the end -- he was directing the guy from 13 Hours to basically slowly exit all the funds positions? assume this is based off the info he got from the mystery man?

The finance talk was a bit ridic, part unbelievable (timeline mostly is completely ridic, all of that in one day would be incredible), part cringeworthy ("when you're in a short like that, you have have to guts to hold!!!" lol wut).

I understand they have to make it complicated enough that people feel they're smart by watching it, and simple enough that people can actually understand why they feel smart, but some of these chats felt like Rounders dialogue about poker.

Also the chat between the chick & Axe at the concert, first time they met, was really bad writing imo. Who the f*** talks like that :/

I'm still interested, but not as happy about this episode as some others here apparently.