The First Million (Pierwszy milion, 1999)

Trader's Film Library #89 · Drama series. A Polish series about three friends from Warsaw's Praga district chasing their first million on the young stock exchange of the 1990s.

Original title: Pierwszy milion · Type: series (7 episodes) · Created by: Waldemar Dziki, Tomasz Wiszniewski · Usefulness for traders: ★★★☆☆

What it's about

Warsaw's Praga district, early 1970s. Three boys from the same courtyard, Kurtz (Przemysław Sadowski), Frik (Szymon Bobrowski) and Piki (Aleksander Siemczew), start their first business by trading waste paper at collection points for toilet paper, which was hard to get at the time. In the 1990s, as Poland's economy is transformed, they move into the young Warsaw stock exchange and bond trading. In a single day they make 50,000 dollars each for the first time, but the closer they get to their first million, the deeper they are pulled into shady deals and the orbit of a stock market tycoon who has the police, the courts and the media on his side. Seven episodes (Canal+, Polsat), written by Marek Miller, Waldemar Dziki and Patryk Vega; in 2000 a shorter film version of the same story was released in cinemas.

What it has to do with markets

It is one of the few Polish productions about the early days of the capital market after 1989: the euphoria of the Warsaw exchange's first years, big money in the hands of people with no experience, and a world where (at least in the series) the edge comes from connections, information and power rather than analysis. It shows well how quick early profits change your attitude to risk and how easily investing turns into a game played by someone else's rules.

Lessons for traders

• a big win at the start is a dangerous lesson: it teaches you that risk does not matter
• when the player on the other side can move the market, analysis alone is not enough
• the bigger the money, the more it matters who controls it and on what terms
• today's regulated, supervised market is a different world from the exchange of the 1990s, but greed and pressure have stayed the same

What to watch out for

Above all, this is a crime thriller about friendship and gangland score-settling. The stock market scenes are simplified and the series says little about trading technique. It is hard to find on streaming services. Polish only.

Discussion

The discussion takes place in Hetman Capital Club (in Polish). Join the discussion in the Club →

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The description outlines the plot without revealing the ending where possible (true stories have a known outcome). Educational content, not investment advice.