The plot of the movie is loosely inspired in the life of Jordan Belfort, whose biography was later depicted by Martin Scorsese in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
In the scene where Chris (Vin Diesel) and Seth (Giovanni Ribisi) are waiting outside Greg's (Nicky Katt's) house, we never see the car move or get started. Before they shot the scene, Ben Affleck was sitting in the car, listening to music. He accidentally took the car keys home with him. They had to shoot the scene that night, and couldn't find Ben. They shot the scene, with the car where it is, and lit up the house, so there wouldn't be a reflection of the camera and crew.
Ben Affleck referred Matt Damon for the role of Seth Davis. Matt backed out to work on The Bourne Identity.
Despite a significant amount of hip hop songs in the movie, there is no official soundtrack containing any of the songs - most likely to avoid payments for the licensing. Hence, fans of the movie have created unofficial versions of the soundtrack with the songs.
Greg (Nicky Katt) tells Chris (Vin Diesel) to get his "One Race" hands off of his money. Vin Diesel's production company is called One Race Productions.