The hit TV show “Industry” gives viewers an inside look into the lives of 20-something Wall Street types, filled with sex, drugs, high finance, and banking mistakes.
The HBO blockbuster, currently in its third season, has caused consternation among fans due to its lack of attention to detail about how the financial industry actually works. According to the Wall Street Journal.
For example, they point out, episodes showing traders enthusiastically working on a company's initial public offering were off the mark, since IPOs are not typically the job of traders. In another scenario, a bank nearly failed due to a failed transition to ESG investing.
“They have a great atmosphere,” Tom Morgan, 43, a Merrill Lynch stockbroker in London for more than a dozen years, told the Wall Street Journal. “But the plot isn't necessarily realistic.”
“Industry” follows a group of graduates who restart their careers at the London branch of Pierpont & Company, a fictional bank that seems to have taken inspiration from JPMorgan Chase. The middle name of the famous 19th century banker JP Morgan was Pierpont.
The drama series, which first aired in 2020, was hailed as “a new kind of 'Succession'” that follows a family that runs a global media giant, and won an Emmy Award during its four-season run.
“Industry” depicts a harsh and insolent working environment, including shouting at trading floor matches and fatal accidents involving young employees.
“As the story was building, we actually decided to make an HBO drama rather than a PBS documentary,” said Morgan, one of the show's two creators and director of London's Morgan. Conrad Kay, a former Stanley salesman, told the Journal.
Nick Strasberg/HBO
Kaye said the show “feels true in ways that are much more interesting to us than the reality of what may or may not happen.”
“Industry” emphasizes the scandalous aspects of traders' lives, such as booze, cocaine, and sex, to the point that many financial experts call them unrealistic.
“Unfortunately, at least in my experience, there was no free sex,” Morgan, a former Merrill Lynch trader, told the Journal.
The second season of “Industry” begins with one of the show’s most glaring errors. Robert Spearing, a salesman and one of the show's main characters, struggles to save an energy company's IPO. But former bankers say people with jobs usually wouldn't take on this kind of deal.
Reddit users were quick to point out the plot holes, and the show admitted they were right.
“It was a big hoax,” said Mickey Down, another co-creator of the show and a former Rothschild & Co. employee.
Showrunners needed Robert to be both a salesman and an investment banker for the show's plot, Down said, even if it didn't make sense.
Then the fictitious Pierpont Corporation faced a crisis after borrowing large sums of money to buy shares in companies with controversial environmental, social, and governance policies. The market lost confidence in the bank after the IPO deal failed.
But bankers say this is unrealistic. Most banks don't borrow that much money to invest in ESG companies because they want to avoid increased regulatory oversight.
And even if the bank made such a strange move, experts say it wouldn't be enough to sink Pierpont completely.
Anonymous financial influencer High Yield Harry has discovered another “industry” mistake that has gone viral on social media.
Traders used a measurement of “pbs” in some of Pierpont's Excel spreadsheets, which may be a misspelling of “bps” for basis points.
Social media users weren't sure if it was a typo or a deliberate gaffe meant to poke fun at the characters' incompetence.
“Let's just say it was intentional,” Kaye told The Wall Street Journal.
Showrunners said they enjoy seeing their show receive so much attention online, whether fans point out inaccuracies or not.
“The idea that people would watch eight hours of television and think that one of the things they get out of it is the format of this page is crazy,” Kaye said. “That's a huge compliment.”
