Belfort made some minor adjustments to the content of the movie’s speech, but he really tried to sell the two-and-a-half-minute clip by splicing in footage from the film. Even though Belfort’s talking to Robinhood and Reddit users, the video makes it look as though he’s addressing the employees and traders of Scorsese’s version of the Stratton Oakmont firm. (The editing magic isn’t all that convincing, but the attempt is noteworthy.)
As for the message that Belfort’s sending, it’s not completely clear. It feels more like he’s just egging amateur traders on, letting them know that they shouldn’t let Wall Street forces and Robinhood keep them from trading. And, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but there’s a ton of explicit language in the video.
“For years, I’ve been telling you guys to never take no for an answer, right? To never stop trading, to hold the line, to keep squeezing the fking testicles of those dastardly short-sellers, until you get what you want, because you all deserve it. To never stop squeezing them by the balls until they’re forced to either buy or die. And now, this st that Robinhood is pulling on us now: stopping us from trading, barring us from their platform—our home, the home that we built—what the fk is that, you know?” Belfort says in the video. “I’ll tell you what it is. It’s Wall Street. It’s the hedge funds. It’s fking Robinhood, being f**king hypocrites. That’s what it is. It’s them, trying to squash us—the little guy—to put us all back in our places. It’s like the other way around, like we’ve been doing to them.”
Belfort then shouts the scene’s most famous line to the thunderous applause that, in the movie, DiCaprio gets from the people at Stratton Oakmont. “We’re not leaving. We’re not fking leaving! The show goes on! This is our home! They’re gonna need a fking wrecking ball to take us out of here! They’re gonna have to send in the National Guard and fking SWAT teams, because we ain’t going nowhere! Fk them,” he screams.
Robinhood has tried to explain some of the actions it took this week that barred users from buying certain stocks on the trading app. In a blog post, the company seemed to place the blame on clearinghouses that “cover the settlement period.” Robinhood reassured users that it’s still committed to its mission of making stock trading available to everyday people. “[W]e stand with our customers and will continue to provide you with the resources and tools you need to become a confident, informed investor,” the post reads.
A Twitter user named Daniel Singer claimed on Monday that he ordered the clip as a Cameo from Belfort. According to Belfort’s Cameo page, a video from the actual Wolf of Wall Street will run you $997. Belfort also tweeted out the “We’re not leaving” line.
Amid the backlash against Wall Street, Robinhood and hedge funds, Belfort has been critical of major stock market establishments that seem to be thrown by all of the activity around meme stocks. In a recent Fox News interview, he said it was “laughable for the hedge funds to cry foul.”
Newsweek reached out to Belfort for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
