It seems everyday there is a reference to Gordon Gekko on this site and every other member has a picture of him as their profile pic. However, what did Gekko exactly do...I mean he wasn't a banker and not exactly a trader. So, what was his official job title/role? Was he simply a CEO of a Asset Management/investment fund? I always thought his character was interesting since he did a little bit of everything (RE acquisitions, buyouts, trading).
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Founder and Partner of Gekko & Co. A private equity fund. He traded on inside info, and was a real estate investor on the side.
In the second movie, he opens a hedge fund in London with the $100MM he "stole" from his daughter's trust fund, because he was banned from trading in the U.S.
Private equity does not get involved in hostile mergers, so Gordon could not have run a PE fund.
80's were a different time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gekko#Fictional_biography
That's all the info you get.
Didn't even notice until today that Gekko did not go to Harvard. Can you believe that ? That's why he went to jail.
I haven't watched the movie in years, but didn't he specifically shit on ivy leaguers, saying that they all want to kiss his ass now, but didn't give me the time of day before he made it big?
He was the CEO of the Gekko & Co investment fund that focused on equities. The fund ran a combination of general equity trading, event driven and private equities strategies, although the strategies were more hostile takeover based and less the refined PE strategies we see today with individual funds that focus strictly on buying companies, LPs, 5-7 year investment horizons, etc.
In the film, you see him employing the hostile takeover strategies in his acquisition of Teldar Paper and Bluestar. You also here Bud Fox mention other deals Gekko has been apart of including the Melcore deal.
With the Anacott steal deal and the insider trading that Bud Fox uses throughout the film you see a variety of risk arb trading strategies, to see which M&A deals will be completed, and trading on different companies earnings announcements.
The script itself was edited by actual investment bankers and traders (which explains the great degree of accuracy in the film and why the second film was so weak). Oliver Stone created Gekko as a combination of several real life financiers who were "Kings of the Street" at the time including Ivan Boesky (risk arb), Milken (king of junk financing), and the slew of corporate raiders who first popped up before PE became a more white glove business.
You also see Bud Fox buying Eurodollar futures which implies that they weren't strictly equities based, but I don't believe we ever saw Gekko talk about something that wasn't equities based.
corporate raider
Hey doesn't the syndicate meeting for Blue Star pretty much sum it up that he was in private equity. You know where Bud Fox finds out they are going to gut the company. I thought the whole point of that scene, besides revealing Gekko to Bud, was to show what Gekko actually did.
gordon gekko = carl icahn
a fictional character
What would you say,... you do here??
yeah, in the movie Gekko was definitely a combination of multiple financiers. What I thought was funny was in the second movie when Shia Lebouf was a trader, but was also an investment banker on the side raising money for some random laser company lol.
The best part of WSII was when he collected his personal belongings before stepping out of prison, showing the bigass cell phone. The rest was pure rubbish.
I still keep quite a few "gekko shirts" though. They were classic.
I thought the tulipmania picture was decent and enjoyed seeing Gekko buying bespoke (or was it made to measure? I can't remember) but ya...that movie sucked
Carey Mulligan sucks
Considering the level of detail and accuracy I posted, how are people still posting?
I would know, don't you think......
He sat in his office all day with a cigarette in mouth and blood pressure cuff on his arm ordering around that sloth Ollie.
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