Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this special edition of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Miriam Gottfried and WSJ banking reporter Alexander Saeedy go inside the high-stakes world of HBO’s financial television drama “Industry.” They are joined by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, former bankers turned co-creators of the show, to unpack how real-world market dynamics inspire the series.
Down and Kay reflect on their early careers at Morgan Stanley and Rothschild, and explain why season 4 shifts away from the fictional trading floor of Pierpoint to the new frontiers of fintech, short selling and media.
The group compares the financial series’ plotlines to real-world reporting on 100-hour workweeks and the mental health toll on junior bankers. They also take a look at the gamification of finance—from meme stocks to Polymarket—how a new generation is redefining risk, and the "cult of personality" driving financial fraud.
Later, the creators weigh in on a hypothetical "cutthroat" trade: How would the show’s characters Harper Stern and Eric Tao play the Venezuela reopening trade?
Polymarket has a data partnership with Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones.
In this special edition of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Miriam Gottfried and WSJ banking reporter Alexander Saeedy go inside the high-stakes world of HBO’s financial television drama “Industry.” They are joined by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, former bankers turned co-creators of the show, to unpack how real-world market dynamics inspire the series.
Down and Kay reflect on their early careers at Morgan Stanley and Rothschild, and explain why season 4 shifts away from the fictional trading floor of Pierpoint to the new frontiers of fintech, short selling and media.
The group compares the financial series’ plotlines to real-world reporting on 100-hour workweeks and the mental health toll on junior bankers. They also take a look at the gamification of finance—from meme stocks to Polymarket—how a new generation is redefining risk, and the "cult of personality" driving financial fraud.
Later, the creators weigh in on a hypothetical "cutthroat" trade: How would the show’s characters Harper Stern and Eric Tao play the Venezuela reopening trade?
Polymarket has a data partnership with Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones.
