History Film / BoilerRoom

* HateSink: Greg, as he's a snooty and condescending JerkAss who develops a painfully jealous attitude towards not only Seth, but also towards his subordinates, Chris, and Abby at times.

* HateSink: Greg, as he's a snooty and condescending JerkAss towards not only Seth, but also towards his subordinates, Chris, and Abby at times.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:After finding out that Seth lied about J.T. Marlin, Marty asks him if he made his clients any real money or if he's ''actually'' stealing from them. Seth can only look down in shame]].

* BavarianFireDrill: The J.T. Marlin brokers are told to pretend whomever they want to be as long as they carry the bluff. The unsuspecting marks have no clue to verify the broker's real identity. One scene involves a young trainee claiming to be in the business for 22 years when he's a kid straight out of college, while a senior broker pretends to be the firm's president to an arrogant client. TruthInTelevision as IRL boiler rooms use similar tactics to con people of their money.

** At the end, [[spoiler:Seth manages to get out from under criminal prosecution by cooperating with the Feds, but the movie ends just as they storm J.T. Marlin minutes after Seth walks out, leaving it ambiguous exactly what happened to Chris and the rest of the company, or if any of them got away. There's a high chance that Chris did escape, since he was given a heads up by Seth and is seen packing his suitcase a few minutes before the Feds storm the building.]]
** There's an alternate take on this in the unused ending: [[spoiler:Seth makes the same deal with the Feds and leaves the building, when a customer whose money he stole pulls up in his car and walks in with a concealed gun. He misses Seth himself, but it's not clear if he went on a shooting spree at J.T. Marlin after their brief run-in.]]

** Seth also applied for a job at J.T. Marlin just to go legit and please his father, but doesn't realize it's a scam [[spoiler:until he starts snooping around J.T. Marlin's records. Realizing he scammed countless investors, Seth cooperates with the FBI in exchange for a lighter sentence]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Most of the J.T. Marlin brokers looked a bit stunned at Greg violently shoving Seth for arguing over who gets to keep the 40th account Seth just closed, aside from him dating Abby.

** The trainees of J.T. Marlin are young men lured with false promises of making big money. Then they are put through absurd requirements at near zero-pay while working for the firm's accounts with the open desire to replace them with NewMeat. Even those who make it through are looked down by the senior brokers.

** While the J.T. Marlin brokers are all well-off financially, they are still the same low-class louts who have no idea what to do with their newfound wealth. They still hang out in the seedy bars they were going prior, dress shabbily, and act like immature {{manchild}}ren when partying.

** Hoping to make a quick buck, the investors in turn are buying the shares of companies TooGoodToBeTrue. The unused ending shows [[spoiler:one such client planning a workplace massacre after he lost his life savings and family]].

* GoingPostal: [[spoiler:An alternate ending has Seth barely dodging becoming part of a ([[BolivianArmyEnding possible]]) massacre at the offices of J.T. Marlin by [[TheDogBitesBack a pissed-off scammed client]]. For further irony, it's Harry, who got scammed by Seth and for whom Seth just arranged a return of his investment]].

-->'''Seth''': (voiceover) I never did get Harry his money back. I think about him a lot, though. I hope he bought that house. [[spoiler:[[IfOnlyYouKnew I wonder what're the chances I'll ever bump into him one day... hell...]] [[RightForTheWrongReasons I wouldn't even know what he looked like.]]]]

--->'''Seth''': (voiceover) I never did get Harry his money back. I think about him a lot, though. I hope he bought that house. [[spoiler:[[IfOnlyYouKnew I wonder what're the chances I'll ever bump into him one day... hell...]] [[RightForTheWrongReasons I wouldn't even know what he looked like.]]]]

The DVD release includes an alternate ending that implies a workplace massacre by one of the cheated clients.

* GoingPostal: [[spoiler:An alternate ending has Seth barely dodging becoming part of a ([[BolivianArmyEnding possible]]) massacre at the offices of J.T. Marlin by [[TheDogBitesBack a pissed-off scammed client]]. For further irony, it's a client who got scammed by Seth and for whom Seth just arranged a return of his investment]].

* MissedHimByThatMuch: [[spoiler:In an alternate ending for the movie, one of Seth's pissed off clients goes to the J.T. Marlin office with a gun to get his revenge. He pulls up in the parking lot just when Seth himself is leaving the company for his own reasons, and they bump into each other without recognizing the other person.]]

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: J.T. Marlin overcharges on the fraudulent stock it sells with the brokers getting a "rip" of two dollars for every share sold. While transaction fees are an industry norm, any investor should always look at said fees and if their broker is "churning" (overtrading on client accounts for the sake of more commissions). Overcharging clients and churning are illegal acts that would get the brokers sanctioned.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Seth browbeats Chris into signing a sell order for a client so he can make his money back. However, securities transactions have a mandated "settling" period before they go live. Since the FBI will be arriving shortly and will stop all pending transactions, the sell order would never go through in real life. It would be a completely meaningless gesture]].

** Seth also applied for a job at J.T. Marlin just to earn legitimately and please his father, but doesn't realize it's a scam [[spoiler:until he starts snooping around J.T. Marlin's records. Realizing he scammed countless investors, Seth cooperates with the FBI in exchange for a lighter sentence]].

** Later, Greg specifically references ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' when training Seth. Ben Affleck's introductory rant to the new trainees is also an obvious send-up to Alec Baldwin's OneSceneWonder in that film as a foul-mouthed real estate salesman.

** At the end, [[spoiler:Seth manages to get out from under criminal prosecution by cooperating with the Feds, but the movie ends just as they storm J.T. Marlin minutes after Seth walks out, leaving it ambiguous exactly what happened to Chris and the rest of the company, or if any of them got away. There's a high chance that Chris did, since he was given a heads up by Seth and is seen packing his suitcase a few minutes before the Feds storm the building.]]

** At the end, [[spoiler:Seth manages to get out from under criminal prosecution by cooperating with the Feds, but the movie ends just as they storm J.T. Marlin minutes after Seth walks out, leaving it ambiguous exactly what happened to Chris and the rest of the company, or if any of them got away.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Greg the dickweed doesn't understand why his girlfriend Abby chose to start dating Seth over him. Not being a snobbish and arrogant jerkass towards others doesn't register in his head.

** After work, a couple of the guys from J.T. Marlin all get together at the house of one of their senior brokers, which is a huge, almost completely empty domicile aside from a few pieces of furniture such as a tanning bed. Seth even asks one of his colleagues if the owner just moved in, but is informed that he's actually been living there for months and [[NouveauRiche has no clue what to do with it]].

** The inner workings of J.T. Martin are the [[GetRichQuickScheme classic internship pyramid scheme]]. Lured in with tales of making big money, the trainees are actually paid subpar wages until they can break through their impossibly high sales quota. Any sales they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for the company's profits. Management openly expects the trainees to simply fluke out and thus never have to pay them any real money, while people like Seth are seen as considered outliers rather than the expected result.

** This is actually what the senior brokers at J.T. Marlin do: promise a young NewMeat with big money, then place absurd requirements on them so they'll eventually be replaced with a new sucker. The lucky few who make it are viewed suspiciously by management. Plus, management is also happily willing to let the trainees be CannonFodder while the senior brokers get out quickly and set up shop elsewhere (under a different name) if/when they're busted.
* TakingTheKids: One of Seth's victims invests his family's life savings on a worthless company, and after several heated arguments with his wife, she takes the kids and leaves him alone in their home. [[spoiler:Once he realized the man lost all of his savings, Seth regrets his actions, and decides to scam the company and give the guy his money back right before the Feds swoop in. However, it would be meaningless as Seth knows the FBI will halt all transactions, meaning the sell order would never go through in real life. A deleted ending shows the man carrying a loaded gun with the intent to commit a massacre]].

** Once Seth joins J.T. Marlin, he's unaware that it's actually a scam conning unsuspecting investors through a "pump-and-dump" operation. [[spoiler:It's only when Seth does a bit of snooping around, gets an earful from his father regarding the dark and ugly truth behind J.T. Marlin, and after he cheated a guy out of his money and family by selling him bogus shares does he realize that he's been duped. [[HeelRealization Wracked with the guilt of]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone cheating investors of their hard-earned money]], Seth decides to shut the firm down for good by cooperating with the FBI.]]
** The trainees are lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, when they are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with subpar wages and {{Jerkass}} senior brokers who ill-treat them even if they make it past the 40 account threshold. Management quietly encourages them to quit so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat.

The film takes a look at the world of "boiler room" (seedy, dishonorable, and often fraudulent) brokerage firms and centers on college dropout Seth Davis (Ribisi), a budding underground casino owner from Queens, New York, who gets a job at J.T. Marlin, a less-than-reputable brokerage firm. However at the time, Seth is totally unaware of the firm's criminal reputation. Davis' opposition to his disapproving father, a federal judge, drives the plot as he goes deeper into the operation at J.T. Marlin than he'd like, learning how the firm scams its clients. The company runs a "pump and dump" by propping up artificial demand in the stock of defunct companies to unsuspecting investors and selling them shares at prices set by the brokerage firm, which include a large commission to the brokers (up to three dollars a share for a penny stock). When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares on the market, and the price of the stock plummets.

-->'''Chris:''' Didn't you learn anything?
-->'''Seth:''' [[spoiler: I learned how to fuck people out of their money. Harry Reynard just lost his life savings. And he wasn't a whale. He was just some poor schmuck, and I took him. I did everything that J.T. Marlin taught me to do... and I made up his mind for him.]]
-->'''Chris:''' [[spoiler: What do you want me to say? It's what we do here.]]
-->'''Seth:''' [[spoiler: What, we lie? We're liars?]]

-->'''Greg:''' (referring to Seth) [[AskAStupidQuestion Don't tell me that's why I'm not hitting it anymore.]]
-->'''Abby:''' [[CondescendingCompassion Oh, honey]] - you were never hitting it. [[NoYou And he's not the reason, Greg... you are.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Greg the dickweed doesn't understand why his girlfriend Abby chose to start dating Seth over him. Not being a snobbish and arrogant JerkAss towards others doesn't register in his head.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jim Young, the HR manager and one of the senior brokers, gives one to the trainees.
-->'''Jim Young''': Goddamn it, you fucking guys! I'm gonna keep this short, OK? You passed your Sevens a month ago. Seth's the only one that's opened the necessary 40 accounts for his team leader. When I was a junior broker, I did it in 26 days, okay? You're not sending out press packets anymore. None of this "Debbie the Time-Life operator" bullshit. So get on the phones! It's time to get to work! Get off your ''ass''! Move around! Motion creates emotion! I remember one time I had this guy call me up, wanted to pitch me. Right? Wanted to sell me stock, so I let him. I got every fucking rebuttal out of this guy, kept him on the phone for an hour and half. Towards the end, I started asking him buying questions like "What's the firm minimum?" — that's a buying question. Right there, that guy's gotta take me down. It's not like I asked him "What's your 800 number?" — that's a fuck-off question. I was giving him a run and he blew it, okay, to a question like "What is the firm minimum?" — the answer is ''zero''. You don't like the idea, don't pick up a single share! But this putz is telling me, you know, "Uh, 100 shares" — Wrong answer! No! ''You have to be closing all the time!'' And be aggressive. Learn how to push. Talk to them. Ask them questions. Ask them rhetorical questions! It doesn't matter. Anything. Just get a yes out of 'em! "If you're drowning and I throw you a life jacket, would you grab it? Yes! Good. Pick up 200 shares. I won't let you drown." Ask them how they'd like to see 30, 40% returns. What are they gonna say? "No? Fuck you? I don't wanna see those returns?" ''[some of the trainees snicker]'' Stop laughing. It's not funny. If you can't learn how to close, you better start thinking about another career. And I am deadly serious about that — ''dead fucking serious!'' And have your rebuttals ready. A guy says call me tomorrow — bullshit! Somebody tells you that they got money problems about buying 200 shares is ''lying'' to you. You know what I say to them? I say: "Hey look, man. Tell me you don't like my firm. Tell me you don't like my idea. Tell me you don't like my fucking necktie. But don't tell me you can't put together 2,500 bucks." And there is no such thing as a no-sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock, or he sells you on a reason he can't. Either way, a sale is made. The only question is — who's gonna close? You or him? And be relentless. That's it. I'm done.

-->'''Marty''': [[spoiler:Hey. I spoke to Howard Goldberg over at Prudential. You lied again, you unbelievable [[PrecisionFStrike piece of shit]]. You lied to all of us. He told me about J.T. Marlin. It's a chop shop, Seth. You've been selling their shit all this time. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion How many people have you fucked over? Tell me, how many?]] All that bullshit about them wanting you to know how the business works. The great training program, remember? All the profits you made for your customers? Did you do anything for them, Seth? Tell me, did you make them ''any'' money at all? ''[Seth can only look down in shame]'' Oh god. I'm done with you, Seth. This is it. I've had it. [[IHaveNoSon I don't want to see you again]]. I don't want you to come to the house. I don't want you to call. This is ''worse'' than the casino, Seth. You've been stealing. Look at me. ''[Seth looks at him]'' You're destroying people's lives.]]
-->''[Marty scoffs and walks away in anger.]''

* TheSocialDarwinist: In his introductory rant to the trainees, Jim considers those living paycheck-to-paycheck weaklings.
-->'''Jim:''' Let me tell you what's required. You are ''required'' to work your fucking ass off at this firm. We want winners here, not pikers. A piker walks at the bell. A piker asks how much vacation time you get in the first year. Vacation time? People come and work at this firm for one reason: to become filthy rich. That's it. We're not here to make friends. We're not saving the fucking manatees here, guys. You want vacation time? Go teach third grade, public school.

** At the end, [[spoiler:Seth manages to get out from under criminal prosecution by cooperating with the Feds, but the movie ends just as FBI agents storm J.T. Marlin minutes after Seth walks out, leaving it ambiguous exactly what happened to Chris and the rest of the company, or if any of them got away.]]

** Hoping to make a quick buck, the investors in turn are buying the shares of companies TooGoodToBeTrue. The unused ending reveals that [[spoiler:one such client plans a workplace massacre after he lost his life savings and family]].

** Deconstructed. The film reveals the ugly side of this scam. The brokers at J.T. Marlin are knowingly robbing investors of their hard-earned savings via securities fraud. Hoping to make a quick buck on the market, the investors in turn are investing in deals TooGoodToBeTrue. The unused ending reveals that [[spoiler:one such client plans a massacre after he lost his life savings and family]]. Seth also applied for a broker trainee role just to earn legitimately and [[WellDoneSonGuy please his father]], but doesn't realize it's a scam [[spoiler:until he starts snooping around]].

* BavarianFireDrill: The J.T. Marlin brokers are told to pretend whomever they want to be as long as they carry the bluff. The unsuspecting marks have no clue to verify the broker's real identity. One scene involves a young trainee claiming to be in the business for 22 years when he's a kid straight out of college, while a senior broker pretends to be the firm's president to an arrogant client.

** The "companies" promoted by J.T. Marlin use run-down buildings, fancy-sounding names, and fake returns to convince unwitting clients that they're legit. When Seth checks the record of one such "company," [[OhCrap he notices something is off]].
** The trainees of J.T. Marlin are young men lured with false promises of making big money. Then they are put through absurd requirements at near zero-pay while working for the firm's accounts with the open desire to replace them with NewMeat. Even the lucky few that make it through are looked down by the senior brokers.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film reveals the ugly side of the "greed is good" and get-rich-quick mentalities.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Greg the prick [[EvilCannotComprehendGood doesn't understand]] on why Abby started dating Seth. His arrogance is what made the relationship go sour.

* BavarianFireDrill: The J.T. Marlin brokers are told to pretend whomever they want to be as long as they carry the bluff. The unsuspecting marks have no clue to verify the broker's real identity. One scene involves a young trainee claiming to be in the business for 22 years when he's a kid straight out of college. Another scene shows a senior broker pretending to be the firm's president to an arrogant client.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film deconstructs the "greed is good" mentality and get-rich-quick schemes, revealing the ugly side of the firms that are behind such scams.
** The brokers at J.T. Marlin are scamming investors of their savings via securities fraud, but project themselves as honest businessmen. Several scenes show the higher-ups altering their records and lining up new office space should the feds shut it down. [[spoiler:In a deal with the FBI, Seth downloads the firm's records onto a floppy disk as evidence]].

** The "companies" promoted by J.T. Marlin use run-down buildings, fancy-sounding names, and fake returns to convince unwitting clients that they're legit. When Seth snoops around the "office" of one such "company" and checks their records, [[OhCrap he notices something is off]].

** Deconstructed. The film reveals the ugly side of those who promote such scams. The brokers at J.T. Marlin are knowingly robbing investors of their hard-earned savings via securities fraud. Hoping to make a quick buck on the market, the investors in turn are investing in deals TooGoodToBeTrue. The unused ending reveals that [[spoiler:one such client plans a massacre after he lost his life savings and family]]. Seth also applied for a broker trainee role just to earn legitimately and [[WellDoneSonGuy please his father]], but doesn't realize it's a scam [[spoiler:until he starts snooping around]].
** Lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, the trainees are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with JerkAss bosses who let them passively burn out so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat as most of them won't meet the 40 new account threshold. Even if a trainee exceeds the absurd requirements, the senior brokers view them with suspicion. Sales made by the trainees usually become house accounts, meaning they are working for a senior broker's profits.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Seth tells a client that CNBC put a buy reco on Farrow Tech. In reality, CNBC is a TV channel that can only provide economic commentary. They ''are NOT'' broker-dealers and have no authority to recommend a certain stock. Only licensed advisors can do that.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Seth browbeats Chris into signing a sell order for a client so he can make his money back. But there's one BIG problem: securities transactions have a mandated "settling" period before they go live. Since Seth knows the FBI is arriving, it's unknown if he is aware that they will halt all transactions, meaning that the sell order would never go through in real life. It would be a completely meaningless gesture]].

* TheCon: As J.T. Marlin is a "boiler room" committing micro-cap stock fraud via the "pump-and-dump" delayed wire tactic, the marks are lured into TooGoodToBeTrue returns via dishonest sales tactics. [[spoiler:It's only a bit of snooping around, an earful from his father, and a lousy stock deal causes Seth to shut the firm down for good by cooperating with the FBI]].

** The brokers at J.T. Marlin are scamming investors of their savings via securities fraud, but project themselves as honest businessmen. Several scenes show the higher-ups altering their records and lining up new office space should the feds shut it down. [[spoiler:In a deal with the feds, Seth downloads the firm's records onto a floppy disk as evidence]].

** Trainees are lured with a promise of becoming millionaires, when they're actually paid chump change so they'll be replaced with NewMeat when they fluke out. Any sale they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for a senior broker's profits. Management also treats them like crap even if they exceed the requirements.
** Seth also applied for a job at J.T. Marlin just to earn legitimately and please his father, but doesn't realize it's a scam [[spoiler:until he starts snooping around J.T. Marlin's records. Wracked with the guilt of robbing countless investors, Seth cooperates with the FBI in exchange for a lighter sentence]].

** Lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, the trainees are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with JerkAss senior brokers who ill-treat them. J.T. Marlin is also passively burn out so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat as most of them won't make it past the 40 new account threshold. Even if a trainee exceeds the absurd requirements, the senior brokers view them with suspicion. Sales made by the trainees usually become house accounts, meaning they are working for a senior broker's profits.

** While the J.T. Marlin brokers are all well-off financially, they are still the same low-class louts they were and have no idea what to do with their newfound wealth. They still hang out in the seedy bars they were going prior, dress shabbily, and act like immature {{manchild}}ren when partying.

* NotWhatISignedOnFor: Once Seth does a bit of snooping around and begins to realize [[spoiler:that he cheated a guy out of his money and family by selling worthless shares and that the firm is not what it all seems to be, combined with getting an earful from his father regarding the dark secret of J.T. Marlin, he decides to shut the firm down for good by cooperating with the FBI.]]

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Seth tells a client that CNBC put a buy reco on Farrow Tech. In reality, CNBC is a TV channel that can only provide economic commentary. They ''are NOT'' broker-dealers and have no authority to recommend a certain stock. Only licensed stockbrokers can do that.

** The trainees are lured with a promise of becoming millionaires, when they're actually paid chump change so they'll be replaced with NewMeat when they fluke out. Any sale they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for a senior broker's profits. Management also treats them like crap even if they exceed the requirements.

** The trainees are lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, when they are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with JerkAss senior brokers who treat them like crap. As most of them don't make it past the 40 account threshold, they earn subpar wages. J.T. Marlin is also passively pushing them to quit so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat. Even if a trainee makes it past the threshold, they are viewed with deep contempt by the senior brokers. Any sale made by the trainees automatically become house accounts, meaning they are working for a senior broker's profits.

* HideTheEvidence: One scene shows J.T. Marlin's compliance officer [[DestroyTheEvidence shredding]] and altering records to hide their criminality. [[spoiler:Seth's deal with the FBI involves making copies of his client files onto a floppy disk so it can be used as evidence]].

** All of the senior brokers have various shades of this. They're well-off financially, but also very clearly low-class and crude, lacking anything even resembling refinement nor having any idea what to do with their newfound wealth. So they still hang in the seedy bars they were going prior, dress in cheap, ill-fitted suits and act like rowdy frat boys. The best idea what to do with their money for them is to play craps in a corner, betting in thousands.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: At the end of the film, Seth tells Chris that [[spoiler:he was arrested by the FBI and was [[TheInformant ratting everyone out]].]] After angrily lashing out, Seth tells him to [[spoiler:sign a slip that would allow Harry, one of his victims to get his money back and to leave before the FBI raids the building.]] After taking care of business, Seth excuses himself to go to lunch. In the next scene, Chris can be seen [[spoiler:quickly packing up everything on his desk that would incriminate him and hightailing it out of there.]]

* TheSocialDarwinist: In his introductory rant to the trainees, Jim considers those working 9-to-5 jobs as weaklings.

** This is actually what the senior brokers at J.T. Marlin do: promise a young NewMeat with big money, then place absurd requirements on them so they'll eventually be replaced with a new sucker. The lucky few who make it are viewed suspiciously by management. Plus, management is also happily willing to let the trainees be CannonFodder and take the heat while the senior brokers get out quickly and set up shop elsewhere (under a different name) if/when they're busted.

** The inner workings of J.T. Martin are the [[GetRichQuickScheme classic internship pyramid scheme]]. New trainees are lured in with tales of making big money, but are actually paid subpar wages until they can break through their impossibly high sales quota. Any sales they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for the company's profits. The company openly expects the trainees to simply fizzle out and thus never have to pay them any real money, while people like Seth are seen as considered outliers and aberrations rather than the expected result.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: At the end of the film, Seth tells Chris that [[spoiler:he was arrested by the FBI, and was [[TheInformant ratting everyone out]].]] After angrily lashing out, Seth tells him to [[spoiler:sign a slip that would allow Harry, one of his victims to get his money back and to leave before the FBI raids the building.]] After taking care of business, Seth excuses himself to go to lunch, and as he's walking out, Chris can be seen [[spoiler:quickly packing up any documentation on his desk that would incriminate him and hightailing it out of there.]]

* WhiteCollarCrime: J.T. Marlin is a "pump-and-dump" scam, where the shares of nonexistent companies and speculative penny stock are inflated through false statements. Once the crooks "dump" their holdings, the price falls and the investors lose money.

** The trainees are lured with the promise of making them millionaires when the company actually squeezes them with low pay so they'll be replaced with NewMeat. Any sale they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for a senior broker's profits. Management also treats them like crap even if they make it past the requirements.

The film takes a look at the world of "boiler room" (seedy, dishonorable, and often fraudulent) brokerage firms. The film centers on college dropout Seth Davis (Ribisi), a budding underground casino owner from Queens, New York, who gets a job at J.T. Marlin, a less-than-reputable brokerage firm. However at the time, Seth is totally unaware of the firm's criminal reputation. Davis' opposition to his disapproving father, a federal judge, drives the plot as he goes deeper into the operation at J.T. Marlin than he'd like, learning how the firm scams its clients. The company is a chop shop brokerage firm that runs a "pump and dump", using its brokers to create artificial demand in the stock of defunct companies by cold calling unsuspecting investors and selling them shares at prices set by the brokerage firm, which include a large commission to the brokers (up to three dollars a share for a penny stock). When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares to in the market, and the price of the stock plummets.

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: J.T. Marlin overcharges on the fraudulent stock it sells with the brokers getting a "rip" of two dollars for every share sold. While transaction fees are an industry norm, any investor should always look at said fees and if their broker is "churning" (overtrading on client accounts for the sake of more commissions). Overcharging clients and churning are considered illegal, and the firm and its brokers would be sanctioned.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Seth tells a client that CNBC put a buy reco on Farrow Tech. In reality, that would put CNBC in trouble as while they can provide economic commentary, they ''are NOT'' broker-dealers and have no authority to recommend a certain stock. Only licensed stockbrokers can recommend a security.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Before the interview, Seth notices the guys at J.T. Marlin look like they're taking the 6 to Fulton Street. In reality, the 6 doesn't go to Fulton Street as it terminates at City Hall, one stop before. Subway riders wishing to stop at Fulton Street must take the 4 or 5 express routes along the Lexington Avenue Line.

** Hoping to make a quick buck, the investors in turn are buying the shares of companies TooGoodToBeTrue. The unused alternate ending reveals that [[spoiler:one such client plans a workplace massacre after he lost his life savings and family]].

* NewMeat: The blood and life-force of J.T. Marlin are young, inexperienced, untrained, but ''greedy'' men lured with promises of making big money. Then they are put through absurd requirements at near zero-pay, all while working for someone else's account with the open desire to replace them with new schmucks. Even the few that make it through their grueling internship are treated with contempt by the senior brokers.

** The brokers at J.T. Marlin are scamming investors of their savings via securities fraud, but project themselves as honest businessmen. Several scenes show the higher-ups altering their records and lining up new office space should the feds shut it down. [[spoiler:In a deal with the feds, Seth downloads the firm's records and client files onto a floppy disk as evidence]].

** J.T. Marlin lures in new trainees with the promise of making them millionaires via a FauxtasticVoyage, when the company actually wants them to burn out with low pay and be replaced with NewMeat. Any sales they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for a senior broker's profits. The senior brokers also treat them like crap even if they make it past the 40 account threshold.

** The trainees of J.T. Marlin are young men lured with false promises of making big money. Then they are put through absurd requirements at near zero-pay, all the while working for someone else's account with the open desire to replace them with NewMeat. Even the lucky few that make it through are looked down by the senior brokers.

** The trainees are lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, when they are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with JerkAss senior brokers who treat them like crap. As most of them don't make it past the 40 account threshold, they earn subpar wages. J.T. Marlin is also passively pushing them to quit so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat. Even if a trainee makes it past the threshold, they are viewed with deep contempt by the senior brokers.

* GreedyJew: Greg, along with few other brokers. There are a whole lot of dialogues making references both to his [[InformedJudaism Jewish background]] and the public perception of him being a Jewish guy working as a stockbroker for a scam brokerage firm.

** All of the senior brokers have various shades of this. They are all (relatively) well-off financially, but also very clearly low-class and crude, lacking anything even resembling refinement nor having any idea what to do with their newfound wealth. So they still hang in the seedy bars they were going prior, dress in cheap, ill-fitted suits and act like rowdy frat boys. The best idea what to do with their money for them is to play craps in a corner, betting in thousands.

** The inner workings of J.T. Martin are the [[GetRichQuickScheme classic internship pyramid scheme]]. New trainees are lured in with tales of making big money, but are actually paid subpar wages until they can break through their impossibly high sales ratio. Any sales they make become house accounts, meaning the entire team is working for the company's profits. The company openly expects the trainees to simply flake on their own and thus never have to pay them any real money, while people like Seth are seen as considered outliers and aberrations rather than the expected result.

** Seth's father calls him a "piece of shit" [[spoiler:once he finds out Seth lied to him about J.T. Marlin.]]

* HeelRealization: Seth slowly realizes that not only the stock he's selling is fraudulent, but J.T. Marlin has lined up other office space to use if/when they're busted, and its compliance officer is shredding documents to cover their illegal activities. [[spoiler:It forces him to become TheInformant in exchange for federal immunity.]]
* HideTheEvidence: One scene shows J.T. Marlin's compliance officer [[DestroyTheEvidence shredding]] and altering records to hide their criminality. [[spoiler:Part of Seth's deal with the FBI makes copies of his client files onto a floppy disk so it can be used as evidence]].

* TheInformant: [[spoiler:The FBI offers Seth federal immunity if he agrees to testify against J.T. Marlin once all the suspects are arrested and threatens to involve Marty in order to assure Seth's cooperation. But Seth states he will ''only'' do so if his father is not dragged into the case. He and the agents come to an agreement on this, with Seth being kept overnight and allowed to return to work so he could make copies of his book of business onto a floppy disk to be used as evidence.]]

* NaiveNewcomer: For all his apparent street-smarts, Seth is incredibly naive and gullible, as he apparently never prior even ''heard'' about the concept of a boiler room. Even when he's already working in one, it still takes him quite a while to realise he's participating in a multi-layer scam.

* NewMeat: The blood and life-force of J.T. Marlin are young, inexperienced, untrained, but ''greedy'' men lured with promises of making big money. Then they are put through absurd requirements at near zero-pay, all while working for someone else's account with the open desire to replace them with new schmucks. Even those few that make it through their grueling internship are treated with mistrust and as a possible competition by the senior brokers.

* TakingTheKids: One of Seth's victims invests his family's life savings on a worthless company, and after several heated arguments with his wife, she takes the kids and leaves him alone in their home. [[spoiler:Once he realized the man lost all of his savings, Seth regrets his actions, and decides to scam the company and give the guy his money back right before the Feds come in and arrest everyone. However, it would be meaningless as Seth knows the FBI will halt all transactions, meaning the sell order would never go through in real life. A deleted ending shows the man carrying a loaded gun with the intent to commit a massacre]].

** While the J.T. Marlin brokers are all well-off financially, they are clearly low-class louts, lacking anything even resembling refinement nor having any idea what to do with their newfound wealth. They still hang out in the seedy bars they were going prior, dress shabbily, and act like immature {{manchild}}ren when partying.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: At the end of the film, Seth tells Chris that [[spoiler: he was arrested by the FBI, and was [[TheInformant ratting everyone out]].]] After angrily lashing out, Seth tells him to [[spoiler: sign a slip that would allow Harry, one of his victims to get his money back, and to leave before the FBI raids the building.]] After taking care of business, Seth excuses himself to go to lunch, and as he's walking out, Chris can be seen [[spoiler: quickly packing up any documentation on his desk that would incriminate him, and hightailing it out of there.]]

* TheCon: The "pump-and-dump" delayed wire scam is used here, as the J.T. Marlin brokers sell shares of phony companies via TooGoodToBeTrue returns and fraudulent sales tactics.

* TheCon: As J.T. Marlin is a "boiler room" committing micro-cap stock fraud, the victims are unsuspecting investors lured into TooGoodToBeTrue returns via dishonest sales tactics. [[spoiler:It's only a bit of snooping around, an earful from his father, and a lousy stock deal causes Seth to shut the firm down for good by cooperating with the FBI]].

** The brokers at J.T. Marlin are knowingly robbing investors of their savings via securities fraud, but project themselves as honest businessmen. Several scenes show the higher-ups hiding their fraudulent activities by altering their records and setting up new office space in case the feds shut it down. [[spoiler:In a deal with the feds, Seth downloads the firm's records and client files onto a floppy disk as evidence]].

** The trainees are lured in with a FauxtasticVoyage of becoming millionaires, when they are actually the workhorses of a pyramid scheme with JerkAss senior brokers who treat them like crap. As most of them don't make it past the 40 account threshold, they earn subpar wages. J.T. Marlin is also passively pushing them to quit so they can be replaced with an endless stream of NewMeat.

* {{Greed}}: Since most of the brokers at J.T. Marlin are Gordon Gekko wannabes, they're white collar crooks knowingly committing securities fraud by selling fraudulent shares to unsuspecting investors. The scene where Seth watches his colleagues imitate Gekko while watching ''Film/WallStreet'' also shows who they truly are. Greg even directly references the foul-mouthed real estate broker from ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss''.