Are tv shows and movies predictors of financial markets?

There was an article saying that this was indeed the case. Are TV shows and movies predictors of financial markets? The article was in Money magazine, and said that anytime hollywood or a major network makes a show on something financial related such as wall street, the dot com boom, that the market they're depicting in the series will collapse soon after. Do you think this theory holds water?

Sure, it makes sense. By the time a TV show is made out of a financial trend - or a movie for that matter - this particular trend has reached critical mass. Thus, by the time the movie comes out, or the TV show airs on TV, the trend has started to shift in the opposite directions. As they say, markets move in cycles...who wants to make a TV show about the stock market going UP while it's on it's way down? Nobody, you can't sell the idea, but that's exactly *when* the show should get made, as it'd have the best chance of mirroring real life.

Doubt it'll happen though, as to succeed, the show would need to be reality TV, and can you imagine the SEC issues with the cast & crew, known the show comes out in 3 months, and them all buying stock XYZ b/c they know people will buy it as soon as they see the TV show...it'd be insane.

Generally no. There's too much variance in what's happening.

Generally also, tv shows are fiction.