What did Gekko exactly do?

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).

 
Best Response

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.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/o-jOAmy4DIU

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

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.

 

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.

Invest first, investigate later.
 
LCYM:
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 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

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

Considering the level of detail and accuracy I posted, how are people still posting?

I would know, don't you think......

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 
Gekko21:

Considering the level of detail and accuracy I posted, how are people still posting?

I would know, don't you think......

I was just wondering the same thing.
''You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you need to concentrate on.'' — President George W. Bush 0.5 bb
 

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