Economics can be, admittedly, a pretty boring subject to casually read up on. Not everyone is a fan of how the US economy—or any economy for that matter—works.

With its global financial epicenter in New York City, the stock market has long been a source of curiosity for many Americans. With numerous popular films like Wall Street and The Wolf of Wall Street uncovering the unsavory side of investment, people are often skeptical of the financial industry. Though few truly understand the inner workings of the world economy, they are fascinated by the culture around it and are envious of those who thrive off of trading in the stock market. If you have an intermediate or advanced knowledge about the world of finance or investment, you have at very least probably heard the terms bull and bear markets. These terms are used to describe the performance of the stock exchange in terms of stock prices and subsequent investor confidence. There are few factors more important in the fluctuations of the market than the state of investor confidence. The state of the market hinges greatly on the confidence of the investor, meaning that high confidence is good for the market and low confidence is obviously bad. In fact, before the Great Depression, many of the large economic collapses in history were referred to as "panics," occurring every few decades, despite the general upward trend of the nineteenth century. The origin of bull market and bear market terms still stands today, though, as vocabulary has evolved to describe trends in the market, and are exceedingly important for anyone with a vetted interest in the stock market to know.

15. Fifth Avenue Fortress - Bruce Kovner

Wall Street is notoriously corrupt. Entire libraries and bookstores could be filled with the exposés and investigations of Wall Street and Washington corruption, ranging from single individuals stealing billions from their investors to the largest corporations running nationwide or global scams. Sometimes it's a matter of opportunity, as seen in The Big Short, but other times it's a matter of long-term, pre-meditated malice and greed. To bone up on your understanding of some of these shocking people and events, there are countless books about Wall Street scandals that offer new insights, deep investigations, and important discussions of the ways that some aspects of the economy do and, more importantly, don't work.

Among the best Wall Street films to watch, the classic 1987 film Wall Street is considered to be the archetypal image of the wealth, surplus, and success of the 1980s. Despite critical and financial success, leading to a lukewarm sequel in 2010, the film had more than its fair share of behind-the-scenes drama. Between this drama between stars Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, burgeoning technologies, and historical relevance, here are some things you didn't know about Wall Street.

Like members of any relatively exclusive profession or organization, the stockbrokers on Wall Street have, over time, developed a proprietary lexicon of inside jokes and trade-specific terms. Generally, these terms are of little to no use to laypeople, but they come in handy in a few specific scenarios. Understanding some of the more cryptic Wall Street market terms can enrich the experience of watching a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street, or seemingly any movie that takes place in the 1980s, while understanding common stock market terms and their definitions is just good general knowledge.

The finance world is one that is deceptively dramatic. On the surface, finance seems to be the most drama-free industry in existence. People ask, "What's so exciting about number-crunching accountants?"

At one point, Bernie Madoff was one of the most respected men on Wall Street. As owner of one of the most successful investment firms in America and as the former chairman of NASDAQ, Madoff had the world at his feet. Everyone in the finance world wanted to be him.

"Now these readers, well they'll know our names/ the bankruptcy punch sound is our claim to fame/ and that's why they call us worst IPOs in history, we can't deny/ bad, bad IPOs till the day we die."

As a fan myself, the iconic film The Wolf of Wall Street is easily one of the best films out there. Based on Jordan Belfort's memoir, this film perfectly captures the life of the Wolf during his Wall Street days. The setting of the film goes back in 1987 where Jordan took an entry-level job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. While still in his 20s, he discovers his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. Working hand in hand with Donnie Azoff and a gang of brokers, Jordan makes a massive fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions. However, Jordan couldn’t take the train of fun and thrills for too long, because the SEC and the FBI were on his tail.

There are so many companies and businesses out there who are successful at what they do. From food-chain companies to technology and even motor vehicle companies, it's clear that the majority of them that we know are doing fairly well in the business. Companies like BMW, eBay, Microsoft, Google, Time Warner, and others have actually been part of either a merger or an acquisition, believe it or not.

The stock market goes crazy every single day. Certain companies' stocks shoot up, but then can suddenly come right back down in an instant. There are also companies that have a consistent rating and can suddenly go right up or down. No one can expect where the prices will go. All we can do is watch the prices through the stock market. That's one of the cool and thrilling things when it comes to investing in stocks, too. Since you don't know how high or low a company's stock will go, you can either gain or lose. Stock market crashes are nearly common, too.