What happens at the end of 'Trading Places'? (2013) | Hacker News Reader

What happens at the end of 'Trading Places'? (2013)

npr.org

70 pointsaustinallegro26 comments

What's missing from this explanation is how open outcry trading works. If the "sell 30 April at 142" instruction is barely heard correctly, how would other traders be sure of what they heard and react accordingly? It seems like a messy trading environment where mistakes could easily be made. What do they do to prevent these mistakes and to prevent traders from reneging on the trades? Do they have a ticker tape? Do they have employees who would record all transactions on the ticker tape? How do they go from verbal instructions to a verified record?

Amazing movie though. I just wish I had more context to understand the scene fully.

There was a system of hand signals to back up the communication. The movie didn't really show that.

Here's how they did it in Chicago at the Commodities Exchange:

https://youtu.be/yd31eEEWOoc

One of my favorite scenes in Ferris Bueller

These hand signals are known as arb. I was told (when I worked for a brokerage firm) that the name stems from people involved with arbitrage needing to communicate quickly, before the rest of the market caught on to what they were doing).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_signaling_(open_outcry)

I attempted a little webcam machine learning video game to trade open outcry.

Can't say it works that well but I claim side project lol.

https://www.thepittrader.com/

Prince Akeem was upset that Arsenio Hall was using the royal family's money when they were supposed to be living like commoners. Out of anger he took a large wad of cash that Arsenio had on him and gave it to two homeless people who turned out to be the Duke brothers.

(for those who did not make the connection, in the movie Coming to America Eddie Murphy gave some money to two bums - the bums are the Dukes brothers who went bankrupt at the end of the movie Trading Places)

Since toothbrushes wear out why have a gold handle? I get that he's extremely rich but is he just putting gold in the trash?

I’ve worked in trading for some time now (on the tech nerd side) and can still remember my jaw dropping when I learned that FCOJ is actually traded and wasn’t made up for the movie.

My father was a trader on the floor of the CME in Chicago for a short bit (mid to late 90s), and Trading Places was provided as required reading before he taught me how to trade commodities. Great film. I have the VHS copy somewhere for sentimental reasons.

Why you can’t trade onions futures is also a fun read, for similar reasons (“The Great Onion Corner”).

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450769853/the-great-onion-cor...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act

There's a good chance I knew your father if he was active between 89' and 97'. Leased and eventually bought a seat and cleared through RJO.

Mostly S&P 500, Pound Sterling and Live Cattle.

And thanks for those links!

as the last of the short orders were filed Kosuga leaned over to Siegel and whispered, "now we'll really give em something to cry about", and the rest is history

When I was in law school I took a class on securities regulation taught by Joel Seligman, and I remember looking at his multi-volume treatise which included a letter Gerald Ford sent him reminiscing about the Onion Futures Act.

The entire concept of FCOJ grosses me out after I learned they would sometimes ship it north inside of the same tanker trucks they would use to ship chemicals down south. I hope this is regulated now.

That's funny, that in 2010 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission specifically banned the insider trade that bankrupted the Duke Brothers at the end of Trading Places!

Here's a direct link to the testimony mentioned in the Wall Street Journal:

https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opagensler-...

Referenced in the doc as “the Eddie Murphy rule”.

Even if the trading itself wasn't illegal, it had to be illegal to steal a government economic data report prior to its release, right? I mean, if you stole the monthly Non-Farm Payroll report and knew its contents ahead of its release, you could easily make millions of dollars. There is a reason it is released at a specific, scheduled time.

"Should be" != "had to be".

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/business/economist-pleads...

And disgorge your profits, pay a fine, go to jail and agree never to work in the securities industry ever again.

https://youtu.be/9wSQ9Zk_9gQ?si=LIymSh4sGl2jehYo great video on orange juice concentrate futures

Fun fact: Winthorpe and Valentine ended up sleeping on the street after “Trading Places” and Prince Akeem gave them money in “Coming to America”

https://youtu.be/h0GLVc4f02k?si=VIH5-gWVnTSIXnxf

I thought that was actually in The Distinguished Gentleman and had to confirm but you are right. Don’t know why I misremember that.

"One interesting kicker to the story: Trading commodities on inside information obtained from the government wasn't actually illegal when the movie came out, but it's illegal now. It was banned in the 2010 finance-overhaul law, under a special provision often referred to as the Eddie Murphy Rule."

Why aren't most of the democrats in jail, then? - How did they make their fortunes on their lifetime government salaries?

In jail for passing legislation with a trifecta government for barring insider trading?

I will never understand how the hell open outcry trading ever worked. It seems like complete chaos.

> In other words, Winthorpe and Valentine have contracts allowing them to buy millions of pounds of orange juice in April for 29 cents a pound, and to sell it for $1.42 a pound.

Yeah, no. They went short on April OJ futures when it was trading at $1.42 and closed their short when the price crashed to 29 cents.

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