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The Wolf of Wall Street: Separating fact from fiction

Published Mar 3rd, 2014 5:50PM EST
Wolf Of Wall Street True Story

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Were things really as crazy as Scorsese made them out to be? Ritholtz Wealth Management financial advisor and “Reformed Broker” Josh Brown recently went on Yahoo Finance’s Breakout to help separate fact from fiction and discuss how things really were at Stratton Oakmont, the brokerage on which Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is based.

The film depicts star Leonardo DiCaprio’s character and those around him as “dwarf-throwing cokeheads,” and it quickly became director Martin Scorsese’s highest-grossing film of all time. But does it really represent reality or anything even remotely close to it.

Josh Brown knew some of the people at Sratton and in the video embedded below, he discusses how much of the firm’s practices — and partying — in the movie were real and how much was spiced up for the big screen.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.