What “Boiler Room” teaches you about scams

Matthew Partridge looks at the lessons investors can learn from the film "Boiler Room".

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(Image credit: Credit: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

Boiler Room (2000) is a film starring Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel (pictured), set inthe world of underground brokerages (also known as boiler rooms). To the distaste of his father, college dropout Seth (Ribisi) makes a living by running an illegal casino in his house. One of his customers persuades him to apply for a job at brokerage JT Marlin.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri