Vinny Daniel, Danny Moses, and Porter Collins

Character Analysis

These three financial wizards are Steve Eisman's loyal troops at FrontPoint Partners. If Eisman's King Arthur, then these guys are his Knights of the Round Table.

As you might imagine, none of these dudes matches Eisman in sheer size of personality, but they're not chopped liver, either. Porter Collins is a "two-time Olympics oarsman" who found his way into finance (1.50), while Danny Moses gets hired as a head trader to provide a friendlier social touch than the constantly ranting Eisman. Both men had worked with Eisman previously and were so blown away by his intelligence that they followed him wherever he went.

The only guy that comes closeto the head honcho is Vinny Daniel. Born and raised in Queens, Daniel's working class background makes him sympathetic toward his boss's rants against the 1%. What's more, he's not scared to "pull an Eisman" and directly confront Wall Street's hypocrisy. Exhibit A:

"With all due respect, sir," said Vinny deferentially as they left, "you're delusional." [...] This was Moody's. The aristocrats of the rating business, 20 percent owned by Warren Buffet. And its CEO was being told he was either a fool or a crook, by Vincent Daniel, from Queen (7.21)

Now that's one apple that didn't fall far from the tree. Although Collins and Moses might not be as visible as Daniel within the pages of The Big Short, all three men play an important role in nabbing the biggest deal of their collective careers.