The best of Hong Kong’s young and senior film stars have come together in a new television series that examines the drama, ruthlessness and heartlessness needed to navigate life and dominate the financial industry.

The Trading Floor is a five-episode drama series created by Cora Yim about the cutthroat activities of two traders that manipulate the stock market to try and come out on top with the largest amount of money (and by influencing the most people).

The series, airing May 24 on Star Chinese Movies, is directed by KK Wong and stars several high-profile actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Francis Ng and Joseph Chang in the title roles, along with Carlos Chen, Maggie Cheung Ho-yee, Yu Nan and Patrick Tam, and legendary Hong Kong actor and singer Andy Lau producing.

This is Yim’s first of two TV series she is producing in 2018, with the other being the criminal drama show Stained, which will air sometime at the end of the year.

As a show, The Trading Floor — which is granting immediate access to all episodes through the FOX+ subscription service — has many aspects that are familiar in Hong Kong movies.

The tense stock trading scenes are filmed at a rapid pace, cramming in as many technical explanations as possible on how stock trading works. These scenes have the intensity of kung fu fights, with the viewer gripping their seat as each character moves to bring the other down.

The Trading Floor explains the process and technicalities of stock trading better than American movies, which usually focus on the debauchery, drama and immoral personalities of the traders themselves.

It is nothing like The Wolf of Wall Street, or even Wall Street for that matter. Here, Francis Ng’s and Joseph Chang’s characters go at each other back and forth using their well-researched knowledge on the trade, while giving the audience a look at the steps it takes to influence the stock market.

Although the details of these rapid-fire scenes will likely fly over the heads of those unfamiliar with stock trading, it is edited to give the story an incredibly quick pace.

The opening scenes of the first episode look more like clips from a trailer or preview, with the story settling down only halfway through the 45-minute episode.

Despite this, The Trading Floor is considered a unique enough project for many of the stars, who have admitted that they had no knowledge of the financial market and were mainly on board because they were amazed by the concept and the script.

Plotting strategy: Joseph Chang’s character contemplates his next move in the cutthroat finance drama series, The Trading Floor.

“I chose to be part of this project because I adore the interesting script,” says Ng, who plays a ruthless government official named Anthony Yip. His character wants to control the financial market to see his country become the ultimate Asian economic powerhouse.

“There’s a lot of drama that you wouldn’t expect happening on stock trading floors, and how brutal they can get,” Ng told members of the press invited to attend the series’ launch in Hong Kong.

Because the series’ concept requires the actors to dive deep into their characters, the story and stock trading, fellow actor Joseph Chang explains, the cast needed to prepare diligently and with attention to intricate details to make sure they could pull off their characters flawlessly.

“The script is complicated enough, that’s why we kind of have to go deep, or else we won’t function,” said Chang, who plays Ng’s protégé and eventual rival.

Chang also elaborated that the actors were allowed to develop their parts in the script as they went along in order to add depth and develop their characters.

The show held a lot of firsts for Chang, as part of the series takes place in Myanmar and he was required to speak several lines in fluent Burmese.

“Aside from learning the financial trade jargon, I think the most challenging part for me is to flawlessly learn Burmese. The moment I mess up, the scene falls apart. So I have to be constantly on my best for those scenes,” he said.

Star producer: Actor Andy Lau (right), a legend in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, explains his role as a producer — not an actor — in The Trading Floor.

— Photos courtesy of Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific Limited