what the hell is going on? i just saw 200,000 shares move, are we part of it, we better be, pal, or i'm gonna eat your lunch for you.  get on 1. sorry, love it at forty. it's an insult at fifty. their analysts don't know preferred stock from livestock.  wait for it to head south, then we'll raise the sperm count on the deal.  right. get back to me.  this is the kid that's called me 59 days in a row. wants to be a player there oughta be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence. look, jerry, i'm looking for negative control, no more than 30 to 35%, just enouqh to block anybody else's merger plans and find out from the inside if the books are cooked. if it looks as good as on paper, we're in the kill zone. we lock and load pal. get on 3.
yeah, billy, who's your buyer?.  no, not interested. ollie, start calling a the institutions, start with marx at janson mutual, then reardon. get me that california retirement money, baby! and we're on our way!
 check the arbs for macdonald's. yeah, i'm having a mac attack. 20,000 shares. for about 30 minutes. lunch? are you joking -- lunch is for wimps. get back to me.
look harold, they're vulnerable, alright, but we don't want 'em to think they're under accumulation. go slow. call geneva and the bahamas for me, will ya? we feint towards it but we wait.
if i ever need surgery, get me the heart of an arb like yurovich, it's never been used. happy holideals harold.
so you say. nice to meet you; hope you're intelligent. like these, how'd you get these?
so what s on your mind kimosabe? why am i listening to you? got to monitor my blood pressure, so whatever you do, don't upset me.
within 45 seconds, a microprocessor computes your systolic and diastolic pressure. has an lcd readout, and it's cost effective -- less than one visit to the doctor.
so what firm you with, pal?
going places, good junk bond department, you got the financing on that syndicam deal.
a cosmetics company by any chance? what are you, the 12th man on the deal team? the last to know?
so whatta you got for me, sport? why are you here?
it's a dog, what else you got, sport, besides connections at the airport?
he respond to the offer? what? what the hell's cromwell doing giving lecture tours when his company's losing 60 million a quarter? i guess he's giving lectures on how to lose money. if this guy opened a funeral parlor, no one would die, this turkey's totally brain dead. well christmas is over and business is business. keep buying. dilute the sonofabitch. ollie i want every orifice in his body flowing red.
doesn't look like it but the best trader on the street.  sue get the lbo analysis on teldar paper and bring it here. what else?
not bad for a quant, but a dog with different fleas. come on, tell me something i don't know. it's my birthday, pal, surprise me.
rings a bell somewhere. so what?
don't like airlines, lousy unions.
how do you know?
hey, the terminator! blow 'em away ollie.
rip their throats out and put them in your garbage compactor. interesting. you got a card?
bud fox, i look at a hundred ideas a day. i choose one.
ok gang, looks like we're going over 5% in teldar, start the lawyers on a tender offer and 13d, we keep going after everything in sight but don't pay over $22. they're gonna fight, they got myers and thromberg doing their legal, they make nazis look like nice guys.
alright bud fox.  buy me twenty thousand shares of bluestar. no more than 15 1. 8, 3. 8 tops, and don't screw it up sport.
hi sport.
try the steak tartare. it's off the menu but louis'll make it for you.
see this? can you believe it? two inch screen.
for my kid rudy -- 3 years old, electronics freak, got a liquid crystal display 'stead of an electronic beam. we're going into a new age pal. so how's business today.
teldar's shooting up. buy any for yourself? bet you were on the phone two minutes after you got out of my office.
sure. relax sport, no one's gonna blow a whistle. here, is this legal?. you wanna put it in my account?
can we have the check over here for christ's sake.
cover the bluestar buy and put a couple hundred thou in one of those bow-wow stocks you mentioned. pick the dog with the least fleas. use a stop loss so your downside is 50,000, and buy yourself a decent suit. you can't come in here looking like that. go to morty sills, tell 'em i sent you.
put the rest of it in a money market account for now. i want to see what you know before i invest it. and save the cheap salesman talk, it's obvious.
you heard me. i don't like losses sport. nothing ruins my day more than losses.  you do good, you get perks, all kinds of perks. stay home tonight. louis, take care of 'im. enjoy the lunch.
come on sport, you gotta try harder, i need some exercise for chrissake.
finish out the game, bud, push yourself.
the public is out there throwing darts at a board, sport. i don't throw darts at a board. i only bet sure things. read sun tzu's "the art of war." 'every battle is won before it is ever fought.' think about it.
yeah.  not bad for a city college boy. bought my way into this club and now every one of these ivy league schmucks is sucking my kneecaps. i just got on the board of the zoological society, cost me a million; that's the thing with wasps -- they like animals but they can't stand people!
i guess your father's not a union representative on that company.
the most valuable commodity i know of is information. wouldn't you agree on that?
you're not as smart as i thought you were, buddy boy, listen hard -- don't count on graham and dodd to make you a fortune, everybody in the market knows the theory, ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the s&p 500? 'cause they're sheep -- and the sheep get slaughtered. i been in the business since '69. most of these high paid mbas from harvard never make it. you need a system, discipline, good people, no deal junkies, no toreadores, the deal flow burns most people out by 35. give me pshs -- poor, smart and hungry. and no feelings. you don't win 'em all, you don't love 'em all, you keep on fighting, and if you need a friend, get a dog, it's trench warfare out there sport.  and in here too. i got twenty other brokers out there, analyzing charts. i don't need another one. talk to you sometime.
you want one more chance? then stop sending me information and start getting me some. get dressed, i'll show you my charts.
know the name?
sir larry wildman. like all brits he thinks he was born with a better pot to piss in.  bribed an old secretary of mine to open bar mouth and stole rdl pharmaceuticals right out from under me. wildman the white knight.
revenge is a dish best served cold.  well, it's payback time, sport. .  see that building? i bought into it ten years ago. it was my first real estate deal. i sold it a couple of years later and made an $800,000 dollar profit. it was better than sex. at that time i thought that was all tne money in the world.  now, it's a day's pay .  i had a mole in wildman's employ. gave me half the picture, then he got fired.
wildman's in town. he just became an american citizen. something big's about to go down. i want to know where he goes and who he sees. i want you, sport, to give me the missing half of the picture.
inside information. oh you mean like when a father tells his son about a court ruling on an airline? or someone overhears me saying i'm gonna buy teldar paper? or the chairman of the board of xyz suddenly knows it's time to blow out xyz. you mean that? i'm afraid sport, unless you got a father on the board of directors of another company, you and i are gonna have a hard time doing any business.
what about it? you work hard. i'll bet you stayed up all night analyzing that dog you bought. and where'd it get you?.  my father worked hard too like an elephant pushing electrical supplies. and he dropped dead at 49 with a heart attack and a tax bill and the bank pissed on his grave and took the house; my mom ended up working in a dish factory.  wake up pal, if you're not inside you're outside. and i'm not talking a $200,000 a year working wall street stiff flying first class and being "comfortable", i'm talking rich pal, rich enough to fly in your own jet, rich enough not to waste time, 50-100 million, a player bud -- or nothing. you had what it takes to let through my door. next question: you got what it takes to stay??
look out there.
you really think the difference 'tween this guy and that guy is luck? mohammed, pull over.
when it comes to money, sport, everybody's of the same religion. or should be.  hope you don't mind if i let you off here, i'm late for a meeting. good bye, nice knowing you.
yeah, it's a beautiful night. i love this hot stinkin' city. .  nothing else like it in the world. seven million people living on each other's heads, kids born, millionaires dying, people praying, junkies, whores, wills, lawyers, deals, parties, sex.  guys like you sport -- dreaming about the big score. you know the best thing about new york is everything you can do here. and the worst thing is everything you can't do here.
bright but not bright enough, sherlock, roll the dice and play a little monopoly.  what box would sir lawrence land on in erie, pennsylvania?
when the market opens tomorrow, buy five thousand march fifty calls. you hear me? start buying ten thousand share blocks and take it up to fifty dollars. when it reaches fifty, you can let out a little taste to your friends. then call this number -- 555-7617: tell the man "blue horseshoe loves anacott steel" you scored, buddy! be in touch.
start buying anacott steel all over the board.
sweeten the offer, throw 2 bucks more in a convertible preferred. and 5 year contracts for themselves.
 cromwell wants to play financial chicken with me, we'll see who swerves first. where the hell's gene?
done and done. night gang, and susan no legs waving in the air tonight. i want you dreaming about teldar paper.
rudy kazootee, how's my cutie!
no, not now rudy. daddy's making money to buy you toys. daddy work.
shut that off, willya!
i come to the country and it's worse than the city! i'm not home.  yeah?
nicole! take him will you.
don't expect to get it all, sport, you'll burn out. first rule of business is never get emotional about stock, clouds the judgment. where do we stand?
i'll be right there, fix them a drink.
you're walking between the raindrops kid. i expect sir larry is choking on his royal chamber pot by now.
can't it wait? i'm good for it. . awright. come out, get the directions from natalie and hurry up.
allright. wait here.
no.  bud fox, my wife, kate.
yeah, why not, bud boy.
it's okay buddy, you know alex.  candice rogers. . this is stone livingston.  and his wife muffie. . darien taylor, sam ruspoli, carmen winters, dick brady.  all old friends.
well he doesn't talk back or steal the silver and dick's gonna get me an exemption on him, aren't you.
make mr. livingston a martini would you nyung, and this gentleman.  stick around, this could be fun.
larry, what a surprise.  can it wait till tomorrow. i got some people over. . if you feel that way larry, come over.
larry! excuse me "sir" larry, great to see you again, you're looking good.
stick around.  larry, one of my "gang" -- bud fox.
shall we go upstairs?
rarest pistol in the world, larry, a .45 luger. only six were ever manufactured.
the same interest as yours larry. money. i thought it'd be a good investment for my kid.
you must be wearing a mask you're laughing so hard behind it larry. let's cut the "sir" crap. correct me if i'm wrong, but when you took cnx electronics, you laid off 8,000 workers, jessmon fruit about 6,000, that airline.
showdowns bore me larry, neither side wins. you can have the company, in fact it's gonna be fun watching you and your giant ego try to make a horserace out of it.  what do you think is a fair price for our stock bud?
but we don't want to be greedy now, so let's let him have it at $72.
my mail's the same color as yours larry. or it was till the queen started calling you "sir". now excuse me before i lose my temper.
considering you brought my mother into it, $71.50.
he's right. i had to sell. the key to the game is your capital reserves. you don't have enough, you can't pee in the tall weeds with the big dogs.
you're learning, sport.
money never sleeps pal. when i came in in '69, they traded six hours a day, now the clock don't stop, london's deregulated, the orient is hungrier than us. just let the money circle the world, sport, buying and selling, and if you're smart it comes back paying. i just made $800,000 in hong kong gold. it's been wired to you -- play with it. you done good, but you gotta keep doing good. i showed you how the game works, now school's out.
you don't understand. i want to be surprised. astonish me, sport, new info, don't care where or how you get it, just get it.  my wife tells me you put a move on darien. here's some inside info for you. that euroflash gq guy she's going with's got big bucks but he's putting her feet to sleep. exit visas are imminent. so don't lose your place in line. oh, jeez, i wish you could see this. the lights coming up over the water. i've never seen a painting that captures the beauty of the ocean at this moment. . an old russian proverb - "a fisherman always sees another fisherman from afar." i like you sport, i ever tell you that.  gordon, call me gordon from now on.
yeah, i'm gonna make you rich, bud fox. i'm gonna make you rich enough you can afford a girl like darien. remember, power is the best aphrodisiac. this is your wake-up call. go to work.
got him at an auction in kentucky.
close to two million. but this sucker can go all the way to devon and the nationals.
just the beginning, sport, just the begining.
the art of which is deception. spread the buy orders through different accounts and you won't get burned.
rudy, viens ici, dit bonjour a monsieur bud.
already speaks a little french, kid got the highest score on his iq test.
think about incorporating yourself there, bud, harold will take care of it for you. .  at a reasonable fee. you're gonna make a lot of money now bud.  stakes are gonna go up, no mistakes.
where do you get off speaking about me like that, making remarks to the press, i resent these remarks, i demand the right to speak.
i appreciate the chance you're giving me, mr. cromwell, as the single largest stockholder in teldar, to speak. on the way here today i saw a bumper sticker. it said, "life is a bitch.  then you die". . well ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasies, but in political and economic reality. america has become a second rate power. our trade deficit and fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. in the days of the 'free market' when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the shareholders. the carnegies, the mellons, the man who built this industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. today management has no stake in the company. altogether these guys sitting up there own a total of less than 3% and where does mr. cromwell put his million dollar salary? certainly not in teldar stock, he owns less than 1%. you own teldar paper, the stockholders, and you are being royally screwed over by these bureaucrats with their steak lunches, golf and hunting trips, corporate jets, and golden parachutes! teldar paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over $200,000 a year. i spent two months analyzing what these guys did and i still can't figure it out.
one thing i do know is this paper company lost $110 million last year, and i'd bet half of that is in the paperwork going back and forth between all the vice presidents.  the new law of evolution in corporate america seems to be 'survival of the unfittest'. well in my book, you either do it right or you get eliminated. teldar paper is doomed to fail. its diversification into casualty insurance has not worked. its crown jewels are its trees, the rest is dross. through wars, depressions, inflations and deterioration of paper money, trees have always kept their value, but teldar is chopping them all down. forests are perishable, forest rights are as important as human rights to this planet, and all the illusory maginot lines, scorched earth tactics, proxy fights, poison pills, etc. that mr. cromwell is going to come up with to prevent people like me from buying teldar paper are doomed to fail because the bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, as you very well know, is the only way to stay strong is to create value, that's why you buy stock, to have it go up. if there's any other reason, i've never hear it. that's all i'm saying. it's you people who own this company, not them, they work for you and they've done a lousy job of it. get rid of them fast, before you all get sick and die. i may be an opportunist, but if these clowns did a better job, i'd be out of work. in the last seven deals i've been in, there were 2.3 million stockholders that actually made a pretax profit of $12 billion. when i bought the ixtlan corporation it was in the exact same position teldar is today -- i turned three of its companies private and i sold four others -- and each of these companies, liberated from the suffering conglomerate has prospered. i am not a destroyer of companies, i am a liberator of them. the point is, ladies and gentlemen, greed is good. greed works, greed is right. greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. greed in all its forms, greed for life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind -- and greed, mark my words -- will save not only teldar paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the usa. thank you.
mixed emotions, buddy: like larry wildman going off a cliff in my new maserati. men as smart as myself have got their asses handed to them on a sling with the airlines, fuel could go up, unions are killers.
tell those spineless toads we'll self-insure if they don't write it.  you fire 33 vice presidents and nothing changes.  you eating twinkies today, bud, or are you schtupping some stewardess.
i'm talking to a stockbroker who wants to run an airline. it's gonna take me two years and 2000 headaches to turn teldar paper around, what do i need this dink airline for? i'm up to my ass in more nuts than a fruitcake.
what does that mean?
what makes you think you can?
alright.  susan, get buckingham on the box. i want him to look at it. and tell jock taylor at thwick, jensen.  so sport, the falcon has heard the falconer. tell me more.
a pleasure to meet you, mr. fox.
i'd be proud to have a son like bud. he's got a great future ahead of him.
harold, you don't mind strolling around the block a couple hundred times, do you?
look, i have no illusions about winning a popularity contest with any of you. i was roasted the other night, and a friend of mine asked-- why are we honoring this man--have we run out of human beings?
it's not always the most popular guy who gets the job done. you got losses of 20 to 30 million dollars, dividends cut to zero, you're getting squeezed to death by the majors. present management may not be the worst scum of the earth, but they're the ones who've put you on a kamikaze course, and pretty soon everybody's going to be scrambling for the parachutes. only there aren't enough to go around. management has them. you don't. if they throw bluestar into chapter 11--which i think they will--then they can use bankruptcy laws to break your unions and your contracts and throw you guys off the property.
cause i have a way around all this, a way we can all make money and make this airline profitable again. what do you say we cut to the chase. i'm asking for a modest twenty percent across-the-board wage cut.
and seven more hours a month.
give me a year. if we're still losing money, the reductions stand. if however, we move into the black, i return part of the givebacks, salaries go back to present levels, and.  we institute an employee profit sharing program with stock. you'll own part of the airline.
i'll have a letter of agreement drawn up within two days.
why don't i give bud an opportunity to answer that.
cards are on the table. what do you think?
frankly, carl, i can't see giving much more. if you have any suggestions i'll be glad to listen.
i beg your pardon. is that a proverb?
sure. what's worth doing is worth doing for money. it's a bad bargain where nobody gains. and if this deal goes through, we all gain.
fine, if you don't want us, stay with the scum in present management--dedicated to running you and bluestar into the ground.
i didn't know we had a meeting schedule for this morning.
will you gentlemen excuse us for a few minutes?
what the hell do you want?
last night i read rudy the story of winnie the pooh and the honey pot. know what happened: he stuck his nose in that honey pot once too often and got stung.
you're walking around blind without a cane, sport. a fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place.
because it's wreckable. i took another look and i changed my mind.
it's all about bucks, kid, the rest is conversation.  bud, you're still going to be president. and when the time comes, you'll parachute out a rich man. with the money you're going to make, your father won't have to work another day in his life.
buddy, it's not a question of enough. it's a zero sum game, sport. somebody wins and somebody loses. money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another. like magic. that painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. i could sell it today for $600,000. the illusion has become real. and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. capitalism at its finest.
the richest one percent of this country owns half the country's wealth: 5 trillion dollars. one third of that comes from hard work, two thirds of it comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulation to widows and idiot sons and what i do -- stock and real estate speculation. it's bullshit. ninety percent of the american people have little or no net worth. i create nothing; i own. we make the rules, buddy, the news, war, peace, famine, upheaval; the cost of a paper clip. we pull the rabbit out of the hat while everybody else sits around their whole life wondering how we did it.  . you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy are you, buddy? it's the free market. you're one of us now. take advantage of it. you got the killer instinct, kid, stick with me. i got things to teach you.
believe me, buddy, i was gonna discuss this with you at the right time. look, why don't you calm down and come to the apartment for dinner tonight. bring darien.
are you with me buddy?
i want you with me.
be another minute, natalie.
this is gordon gekko. now.  i want zip-locked mouths on bluestar, or i'm gonna personally come down there and rip out your fucking throats!
look over there sunshine. i'm up against richard feigen.
what do you say we go get a suite at the carlyle? caviar? champagne? celebrate, just like the old times sunshine.
can't blame me for trying. you look as beautiful as that painting i just bought.
so what's the problem sunshine? you look like black thursday. bad case of puppy love?
sorry to hear that. i thought the kid had staying power.
you told him about us?
now tell me, why would i want to do that?
don't worry sunshine. bud and i had a little talk. we came to an understanding. i want you to go back to him. soothe him. help keep his head straight. okay?
come on, we both like buddy. but this bleeding heart puppy love act is over the top.  it doesn't fit.
you and i are the same, darien. we're smart enough not to buy into the oldest myth running: love.  a fiction created by people who got nothing to keep them from jumping out of windows.
ooh ooh, tough talk from a scared little girl all wrapped in a pretty grown-up package. does this mean you're ready to cut the umbilical cord and step out into the world on your own? because, darien, if you're through with me, you're through with everything i'm a part of.
the word's out. your union buddies are talking. get me in at a 45 degree angle and i mean all the way in! slash and burn, buy everything you can get up to 22. then call me. when i get the sonofabitch who leaked this i'm gonna kill him! i'm gonna tear his eyeballs out, i'm gonna suck his skull!!
who the hell's out there? what are the arbs saying? it's gotta be a big hitter.
what the hell do they want?
you guys must know something nobody else knows. if those are my plans, it's the first i've heard of it.
i'd like to remind you we already have an agreement, which i expect you to honor.
listen, you clowns, there's somebody else out there trying to buy your airline, if you want to be pac-manned and gobbled by atilla the hun be my guest!
sell it all. what the hell, so i'll only make ten million.
yeah, harold, why don't you dial
dump it.
hello bud.
you sandbagged me on bluestar. i guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson, that you can make the tail wag the dog, huh?
well let me cue you in: the ice is melting under your feet sport.
you think you could've gotten this far this fast with anybody else? you think you could be out there dicking somebody like darien? no, you'd be cold calling dentists and widows to buy twenty shares of some dog stock! i took you in! a nobody! i opened doors for you!. i showed you how the system works!.
the value of information! how you get it! anacott steel, brant resources, transuniversal, fulham oil. and this is how you pay back, you cockroach! i gave you darien, i gave you your manhood. i gave you everything.
you could've been one of the great ones bud. i look at you and see myself. why?