alt.hn

4/24/2025 at 8:11:19 PM

What Actually Happens at the End of 'Trading Places'? (2013)

 https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/07/19/201430727/what-actually-happens-at-the-end-of-trading-places

by austinallegro

4/25/2025 at 12:22:25 AM

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.

by kccqzy

4/25/2025 at 1:56:59 AM

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

by joezydeco

4/25/2025 at 3:37:18 AM

One of my favorite scenes in Ferris Bueller

by wildzzz

4/24/2025 at 10:16:46 PM

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.

by allenrb

4/24/2025 at 10:20:30 PM

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

by toomuchtodo

4/25/2025 at 12:00:54 PM

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!

by smallmouth

4/24/2025 at 10:44:59 PM

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-...

by nicwolff

4/24/2025 at 11:30:52 PM

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

by mikestew

4/25/2025 at 4:24:10 AM

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.

by listenallyall

4/25/2025 at 2:19:48 PM

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

by IAmBroom