Is Bretton James based on Jamie Dimon?
Lou Zabel is clearly based on Ace Greenberg the former Bear Sterns CEO, is Bretton James based on Jamie Dimon?
shareThe trading losses at JP Morgan occured after the release of this film
shareHard to tell. I assumed Keller Zabel is Bear Stearns with a bit of Lehman Brothers, but it appears Stone to simplify or make Bretton James more hated merged JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. JP Morgan Chase bought Bear Stearns for 2 dollars a share, but was never alleged to of profited off its collapse. The groups rumored to of heavily shorted Bear Stearns was Goldman Sach and 2 hedge funds (SAC Capital and Citadel).
sharei am in affinity with daniel. keller zabel definitely like bsc with a bit of leh thrown in. however, bretton james' firm definitely more like gs. i don't think jpm was much in the equation; remember when the movie came out jpm still had probably the most pristine reputation of all the bulge brackets--jamie dimon was the darling of washington and even obama's 'favorite' banker up until 2011, as well. james could be considered a much better looking version and WASP-Y version (with hair) of blankfein...
shareyea, I think the firm was a lot closer to GS. Stone took a lot of stuff from real life but really simplified it for the average viewer (which makes a bit of sense since we have people on this board who don't know what shorting a stock it). I assumed the revenge angle for Bretton James not getting a bail out that was supported by Keller Zabel is based on a more complex story. That would be when Bear Sterns refused to bail out John Meriweather's hedge fund Long-Term Capital to which Goldman was heavily exposed too right before they took their stock public. Basically Churchill Schwarts is Goldman Sach but buys the reduced stock similarly to what JPMorgan Chase did. In my opinion this movie would of been way better without such simplification and the cheesy ending.
shareI'm aware the trading losses occurred after the release of the film. I thought it was Jamie Dimon when I saw it on opening night. His mannerisms and way of speaking were what made me think of it. Full disclosure: I used to work for BankOne when Dimon was running it before the merger with Chase and one of my other BankOne colleagues thought the same thing.
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