Margin Call

"Listen, nothing I'm gonna say is going to make you feel any better. It's just going to suck for a while and then you'll be fine."

"You and I can't control it, or stop it, or even slow it. Or even ever-so-slightly alter it. We just react. And we make a lot money if we get it right. And we get left by the side of the side of the road if we get it wrong. And there have always been and there always will be the same percentage of winners and losers. Happy foxes and sad sacks. Fat cats and starving dogs in this world. Yeah, there may be more of us today than there's ever been. But the percentages... they stay exactly the same."

John Tuld: "So, what you're telling me, is that the music is about to stop, and we're going to be left holding the biggest bag of odorous excrement ever assembled in the history of capitalism."
Peter Sullivan: "Sir, I not sure that I would put it that way, but let me clarify using your analogy. What this model shows is the music, so to speak, just slowing. If the music were to stop, as you put it, then this model wouldn't even be close to that scenario. It would be considerably worse."
John Tuld: "Let me tell you something, Mr. Sullivan. Do you care to know why I'm in this chair with you all? I mean, why I earn the big bucks."
Peter Sullivan: "Yes."
John Tuld: "I'm here for one reason and one reason alone. I'm here to guess what the music might do a week, a month, a year from now. That's it. Nothing more. And standing here tonight, I'm afraid that I don't hear ... 'a' ... thing. Just... silence. "

"Maybe you could tell me what is going on. And please, speak as you might to a young child. Or a golden retriever. It wasn't brains that brought me here; I assure you that."

Seth Bregman: "Will, did you really make two and a half million last year?"
Will Emerson: "Yeah, sure."
Seth Bregman: "How did you spend it all?"
Will Emerson: "It goes quite quickly. You know, you learn to spend what's in your pocket."
Peter Sullivan: "Two and a half million goes quickly?"
Will Emerson: "All right, let's see. So the taxman takes half up front, so you're left with one and a quarter. My mortgage takes another 300 grand. I send 150 home for my parents, you know, keep 'em going. So what's that?"
Peter Sullivan: "800?"
Peter Sullivan: "All right, 800. Spent 150 on a car. About 75 on restaurants. Probably 50 on clothes. I put 400 away for a rainy day."
Seth Bregman: "That's smart."
Will Emerson: "Yeah, as it turns out, 'cause it looks like the storm's coming."
Peter Sullivan: "You still got 125."
Will Emerson: "Yeah, well I did spend 76,520 dollars on hookers, booze and dancers. But mainly hookers."
Peter Sullivan: "76,5?"
Will Emerson: "I was a little shocked initially, but then I realized I could claim most of it back as entertainment. It's true!"

Will Emerson: "Jesus, Seth. Listen, if you really wanna do this with your life you have to believe you're necessary and you are. People wanna live like this in their cars and big fuckin' houses they can't even pay for, then you're necessary. The only reason that they all get to continue living like kings is cause we got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and then the whole world gets really fuckin' fair really fuckin' quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do, but they don't. They want what we have to give them but they also wanna, you know, play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. Well, thats more hypocrisy than I'm willing to swallow, so fuck'em. Fuck normal people. You know, the funny thing is, tomorrow if all of this goes tits up they're gonna crucify us for being too reckless, but if we're wrong, and everything gets back on track? Well then, the same people are gonna laugh till they piss their pants cause we're gonna all look like the biggest pussies God ever let through the door."
Seth Bregman: "Do you think we're gonna be wrong?"
Will Emerson: "... no, they're all fucked."

"You know, the feeling that people experience when they stand on the edge like this isn't the fear of falling - it's the fear that they might jump."

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter... or cheat."