''Gaming Wall St'' is a
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
Original
documentary miniseries directed by Tobias Deml and narrated by
Kieran Culkin
Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. The brother of actors Macaulay and Rory, he began his career as a child actor in the films ''Home Alone'' (1990), ''Father of the Bride'' (1991)'', The Mighty'' (1998), and ''Th ...
.
The 2-episode series explores the causes that lead to the 2021
GameStop short squeeze
In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop () and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 ...
, and the dark underbelly of
Wall Street that the phenomenon unearthed:
payment for order flow
Payment for order flow (PFOF) is the compensation that a stockbroker receives from a market maker in exchange for the broker routing its clients' trades to that market maker. It is a controversial practice that has been called a " kickback" by its ...
,
creative accounting, abuses of the
short selling
In finance, being short in an asset means investing in such a way that the investor will profit if the value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of a more conventional "long" position, where the investor will profit if the value of the ...
mechanism like
naked short selling
Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the asset from someone else or ensuring that it can be borrowed. When the seller does not obtain the asset and deli ...
, corporate
overvoting and
failures to deliver (FTDs).
Production
The series was initiated by
Prodigium Pictures, a production company owned by director Tobias Deml, in late 2020. In its earliest form, Deml and producer Tessa Byford conceived of a documentary that would follow the rowdy online community
Wall Street Bets. Once the
GameStop phenomenon—popularized by that community—became a #1 global headline however, the focus shifted more towards the tug-of-war around
meme stock
A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. Investors in su ...
s, and the
financial markets
A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial ma ...
phenomena underpinning this highly unusual event. Filming began on February 1, 2021, in
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
. Due to multiple documentaries being announced on the subject, the team chose to stay completely stealth and evaded any publicity. Prodigium teamed up with Biltmore Films (who had produced
Betting on Zero
''Betting on Zero'' is a 2016 American documentary directed by Ted Braun. It investigates the allegation that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, and follows Bill Ackman's short investment in Herbalife, which is ostensibly a billion-dollar bet that ...
a few years earlier); principals Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn were instrumental in elevating the documentary from a human interest piece with wild online culture wars to an investigative analysis of the darker corners of the financial system that the movement around GameStop exposed.
The companies won the support of Biltmore's prior distributor,
Gunpowder and Sky, for the project. The series was then pitched to
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
, and the streamer green-lit a two episode structure in the fall of 2021. The show was edited in secrecy on a highly compressed timeline of only 3.5 months with a team of 6 editors working in parallel, and a globally distributed animation team readying both narrative and schematic visualizations.
Deml and Byford concluded filming during post-production in early January 2022.
''Gaming Wall St'' was announced with a trailer on February 26 and released on March 3, 2022.
Director Tobias Deml, having worked extensively in the space of
Social Impact Entertainment
Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) is "all storytelling that is self-aware of its potential impact on its audiences and incorporates that knowledge to effect positive change at the individual, local, or global scale on one or more social issues"'',' ...
and intending to spread financial literacy
has stated that during the course of production, he "saw a great need for access to education about investing. We have the opportunity to right a decades-old wrong created by powerful firms that have been gaming the system to the detriment of society." and "I hope that viewers will feel empowered to see themselves as investors and be part of a much-needed reform."
Episodes
Reception
ShowBiz Cheat Sheet has called the series a "Must-See"
while ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
'' criticized that the series "doesn't go deep enough on the culture or the alleged crimes". ''
Decider
Decider is both a real word and a "Bushism". It may refer to:
* ''Decider'' (website), a pop culture website operated by the ''New York Post''
*'' Bill Maher: The Decider'', a stand-up comedy special
* Decider (Turing machine), a Turing machine th ...
'' gave it a "Stream it!" recommendation, explaining "If you loved the mix of harsh language and financial market minutiae that defined ''
The Big Short
''The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine'' is a nonfiction book by Michael Lewis about the build-up of the United States housing bubble during the 2000s. It was released on March 15, 2010, by W. W. Norton & Company. It spent 28 weeks on '' ...
'', then from its narrative to its visuals, you'll dig on Gaming Wall Street's whole entire groove."
References
External links
*
*
Gaming Wall Streeton
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
Social Action Website
{{Max (streaming service)
2022 American television series debuts
HBO Max original programming
2020s American television miniseries
2020s American documentary television series
Films about financial crises
American films based on actual events
Documentary films about business
American documentary films
American business films