"this is a $5000 custom timepiece that tells time simultaneously in NY, London and Gssssstaaaad". ; Bo Diddley: " in philadelphia, I'll give you fifty dollars."
I’ve watched this movie every New Year’s Eve for the past 30 years. It’s a tradition I started with old college mates and now it’s my family who enjoys it. “He was wearing my Harvard tie, like oh sure HE went to Harvard!” - Priceless.
Dang this is a New Years movie. I was thinking it was just a Christmas movie but it's both. Now Dan has been in two New Years movies. This one and Ghostbusters 2.
Yeah, I was wondering that myself. But a year later, Eddie Murphy wears long pants, and a letterman's jacket in Beverly Hills California, and it doens't look like winter.
Because they are both so *cool*, that they can *BE* in sweaters in the tropics. That was how I viewed it (even as a kid in the 80s) when I first saw it, lol.
That has happened in more than one move that Eddie has starred in. In Life w/ Martin Lawrence he ( Eddie) gets into a fight w/ the big guy about the cornbread and tells him he knows a old lady named Della that hits harder than that, reference to Della Reese's character in Harlem Knights when he & she fought in the alley.
I love this movie so much, and it's such a great movie, for years I didn't even care about the fact I didn't completely understand the mechanisms at play. I was just happy they won.
The movie carefully left out some information for a couple of reasons. First, that scene was based on a real event, an attempt by brothers Nelson & Bunker Hunt to corner the silver market (which failed.) Second, the producers were worried if they spelled out precisely how Ackroyd & Murphy manipulated the market for their scheme to work, the producers could then be sued if anyone else attempted the same strategy. A reasonable concern, especially given the advanced in technology that would make it easier later.
Dan didn't quite explain the trading correctly when he said that a "short" was underway. He meant that the Dukes believed that a "shortage" of orange juice was underway because they received bogus "inside" information that oranges weren't going to be plentiful because of frost. Dan's and Eddie's characters, however, knew that the opposite was true and that the supplies of orange juice were going to be plentiful because they got the real inside information. So the Dukes foolishly were buying orange futures based on the bogus false shortage, while Dan's and Eddie's characters waited until the price got sufficiently high enough to begin selling short. Then, just before the real government report on the status of oranges was about to be released, everybody stops cold to listen. The report revealed that oranges supplies were plentiful and more supply meant lower prices. When trading resumes, Dan's and Eddie's characters just wait again as the price plunges from its inflated levels based on the bogus assumption that a shortage existed. Since futures are highly leveraged, the Dukes didn't have the money to cover their catastrophic losses, but Dan's and Eddie's characters made a "killing." So now you know exactly what was happening.
Dukes were trying to corner the market with the false OJ report which described a bad crop. Our hero’s knew the real report was unremarkable with no sign of supply failure. They thus waited for the price to go up and then sold short at the higher price. They would buy later to cover their position at a much lower price, thus earning the price/cost difference.
@@5r3t5n0m Future OJ contracts. Markets are organised to allow you to sell something without owning it, much like credit allows you to buy something using money you don't own. In effect, you borrow the item so you can sell it, and close the position later by buying it back. You're betting on the price falling in the meantime.
I worked on comex then in bank trading rooms for 35 years. This is the most accurate depiction of trading in any movie, aside from the Dukes’ illegal trading of course.
I read somewhere that the only actors on the market floor were Aykroyd, Murphy, and the guy that was supposed to buy OJ for the Dukes. Everyone else were real floor traders and were told to act and do whatever they would act and do normally on the floor once Aykroyd's character yelled out "sell", and after hearing the crop report.
@@Danimal1177 Fun trivia: That other actor-the Dukes' man-was Richard Hunt. Remember how Frank Oz plays a cop in the first half of the movie? Well, Hunt was also a Muppeteer. He'd worked for Henson since the beginning of Sesame Street and was the voice of Forgetful Jones, Scooter, Janice, Beaker and many others. He died in 1992.
Having worked for a couple Wall Street firms in my career, this movie is very accurate for the timeframe in which it was made. One of my favorite movies of all time too!
Interestingly..this line almost didn’t happen. Don Ameche as Randolph, refused to utter that Fbomb, as he was against ever using such a word. He was talked into it by the Director, and there you go...an iconic movie line that almost didn’t happen!
@@HacksignKT actually Don Amache had a MAJOR problem with saying the N word as well! Both Eddie Murphy & Dan Ackroyd has to practically beg him to say that word as well. He gave the same response; he’d say it once and no more takes. You gotta hand it to him that he had convictions about using ANY foul language.
This movie is SO underrated. It is a masterpiece. John Landis, during this period made Animal House, American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America... even Three Amigos, and this movie... all comic masterpieces.
I have more than one DVD of this movie. I had one that was perfectly adequate, but then they released one with a special feature explanation of the whole shorting thing that happened at the end. I bought the DVD purely for that. No regrets. I'm hoping in the future they release a DVD with a recipe for delicious beard salmon.
@@rolandofgilead43 I probably need to get that. I don't have a 4K player yet but I'm thinking about getting one. I already have a Lawrence of Arabia 4K that I wisely purchased before it went sky high due to going out of print.
Fun fact: eddie murphy himself said trading places is his favorite movie of his entire career because according to him he had so much fun making the movie it didn't feel like work. Where all of the rest of his movies felt like work.
For those curious, it was estimated that Dan and Eddie would have cleared over 25 million in that trading time. And that is 25 million back in the 80s.
Adjusting for inflation that 1 dollar circa 1983 would be worth 2.78 today in 2021. So a little over $69 1/2 million between the Dan and Eddie's characters. Not bad.
Here's what happened in plain english: Evil guys think they know that OJ prices will be higher in the future so they buy a bunch of shares. Other traders see this and also buy a lot of OJ shares, causing prices to skyrocket. Dan and Eddie ACTUALLY know that OJ prices will be super low (due to a great crop this year) so they borrow massive amounts of shares at high prices and immediately sell them (called "shorting" because of the short duration they possessed the stock). They now have lots of cash...but still owe someone the shares they borrowed. They now need the price to plummet so they can buy shares cheap to return them and keep the difference. To get the price to plummet, they sell OJ "futures" for cheap, promising to deliver the OJ at a later date. They can do this, remember, because they know that the crop is great and prices will be super low in the near future. When Dan yells "Sell 30 April at 142" he's announcing that he's selling 30 contracts (3,000 shares) of OJ for $142/share. He gets the cash now and will deliver the OJ on April 30th. All the traders then sell their expensive OJ shares and buy Dan and Eddie's cheap futures, causing the OJ price to collapse. Evil guys still think prices will be high so they don't sell. They're now massively in the hole. They bought a ton of OJ at super high prices and now OJ is selling for pennies on the dollar. The news then announces that the OJ crop is great and prices will be low. Dan and Eddie buy OJ shares at super low prices and return them to the owner. They get to keep the difference. They're rich! But it gets even better! It turns out that the evil guys borrowed money from the exchange (i.e., "going on margin") to buy their expensive OJ and the exchange demands to be paid back immediately the difference between the price they borrowed at (super high) and the current price (super low). This is called a "margin call" and it bankrupts them. I've never seen the movie so I don't know why the evil guys are evil and why Dan and Eddie want revenge. Maybe someone can explain that to me in plain english.
Evil guys were Dan’s character’s bosses and mentors, and he was their golden boy. One day they decide to bet a dollar that they could bankrupt him and put a black homeless man on the exchange, teach him the same things, and make him rich. This scheme was their revenge on the Dukes
@@thepunditspundit1776 Ah. Thanks! So the bosses treated him like his life was just a plaything, right? And that's why he's mad? Were the bosses betting that Dan wasn't special (i.e., that any homeless person could do his job)? Or were they betting that it took brains and skill to do his job? Who exactly were the Dukes betting with? And Eddie was the homeless man, right? And was Dan and Eddie's ultimate triumph evidence that it indeed took skill and brains to do Dan's job? Or the opposite?
@@KidFreshie it was a bet between the duke brothers. One thought the homeless guy could do the job, the other didn’t think he could. Homeless guy overheard one paying the other the one dollar in the bathroom after homeless guy was crushing the job.
@@KidFreshie exactly. That’s why the homeless character turns on them and help Louie get revenge and his money back. The homeless guy had more character than the 2 wealthy titans. That’s the moral of the story.
The Philadelphia Mint (now the Community College of Philadelphia) was the set for the police station's exterior. At the time I was working demolition at the mint and got to meet the stars. I was impressed with the work ethic and the long hours it took to produce the film.
The ending still works even if, like me, you don’t fully understand what just happened, even after reading multiple explanations of it years later as an adult. You get the basic gist of it: they had the right information, the Dukes had the wrong information, and they used that asymmetry of knowledge to make the right moves while tricking the Dukes into making the wrong moves. The actual complexities of the process can be glossed over by the dramatic momentum.
What happened was insider trading but Dan and Eddie gave them the wrong information it was something about the orange crops so they thought the price of the stock would go up but it didnt
@@rbeck3200tb40 They were not trading stock. They were trading futures. A totally different animal. Commodities trading is different. And anyone who does not understand how this works is probably a MAGAtard® since the Duke brothers explained it in layman's terms to Eddie Murphy.
@@downtownbillyandthenewjivefive False. They explained the basics to Eddie Murphy's character, not the complexities on how commodities trading really works. The commodities market as you correctly pointed out is not for the faint of heart. Political affiliation has no bearing on how much someone understands the complexities of commodities trading. If you are going to act arrogant and talk down to people, it would behoove you to be bright and knowledgeable yourself.
Essentially, the way a short sale works in this film is that you can sell stocks (futures, in this case,) even if you don't actually have them. As long as you have them by the end of trading, it's legal (of course, if you don't you have to buy them at the current price, whatever that is.) The deal is for contracts, not cash, when you're selling. As long you provide the number of contracts you said you would, legally, the price you bought them at doesn't matter. So essentially the protagonists, when they sell the OJ futures at 142 get a promise from all the buyers (that they cannot break, it's legally binding,) that they will buy those contracts for that price. When the price drops as a result of selling, desperate traders who have those futures are trying to get rid of them to minimize their losses. The protagonists then buy the futures they need to fulfill the sales they made at 29, meaning they keep the difference since all they have to provide at the end of the day is the contracts they sold. They're paid by the buyers and use the money to pay for the contracts THEY bought, then give them to the people they sold them to. Since they got more money for the sales than they had to spend buying back the contracts, they make a large amount of money. The Dukes, on the other hand, expected the price of OJ would go up due to the false information they got. They bought the shares on margin (essentially, a one day loan from the stock exchange due at the end of trading) since they didn't actually have the money on hand or in assets to pay for the number of contracts they wanted to buy. Since the contracts they have bought cost much more than the current price to sell (and the protagonists refused to buy from the Dukes) all they have are contracts that don't meet the amount of cash they owe due to buying on margin. Therefore, since their debt is due and payable immediately, the exchange orders all their assets seized to pay the debt they owe (and likely sues them or seizes whatever property the put up as collateral) to pay the rest of the debt, ruining them financially. Their seats on the board are just more assets the exchange can sell to raise the money, so they lose those as well, as well as all the current stock holdings they have to be sold to pay the debt, and their stock brokerage firm is also seized to pay the debts.
@@kettch777 thank you! This makes perfect sense how you explained it. They sold at 142 and bought at 29 keeping the 113 as profit, as the Dukes had to pay the difference per contract.
The buying of stock makes the price go up, Eddie & Akroyd wait for the price to hit a specific high. It opens at 102. That's when the Dukes start buying. When it gets to 142 Eddie and Akroyd announce they're selling. Drives the price down. Now when the report comes out, the price drops significantly. All the way down to 29. So the Dukes bought at 102 and higher and it plummeted to 29, so they owe all the loss. Eddie and Akroyd sold at 142 and bought at a price as low as 29.
Leave it Aykroyd to come up with a completely different kind of comedy. One that shows the guts of something without confusing the audience too much. Ghostbusters and The Blue Brothers are other favorites of mine.
Fantastic movie. Seen it 100 times (or at least dozens). Unfortunately, the iconic Dan Akroyd explains the end of the movie backwards. Its the heroes who are shorting the Orange futures market, not the Dukes. The Dukes paid for an illegal advance copy of the Farm Report. Our guys intercept the Farm Report and give the Dukes a report that says the opposite of the actual report. The Dukes then go long on Orange Futures. But Akroyd & Murphy’s characters (knowing the correct information) Short the Orange Futures Market. To short means to sell before you buy. They sold first after the Dukes inflated the market. Then, after the true Farm Report came out and the Orange Futures market tanked, then they bought. That’s essentially how shorting a stock works. Technically, it’s slightly more complicated as it involves promising to buy in the future at today’s set price. But functionally its selling before you buy.
the dukes were buying concentrate since the bogus weather report said frost damaged the crop thereby fresh orange juice was going to be in short supply.
At the time when the movie was made this type of insider trading wasn't strickly illegal - it was only in 2011 that the CFTC introduced a so called 'Eddie Murphy Rule' to make it illegal.
I found out recently that, at the time the movie was filmed, the trading that Louis and Billy Ray did was not illegal. They maybe could be charged with physical theft of the agriculture reports and the briefcase that they were in, but trading commodities on insider information was not illegal in 1983.
This is the movie that sparked my fascination with commodities markets. 30 years later and I'm playing it myself, but not orange juice or the softs, mostly energy and metals.
If anyone has been paying attention to the stock market right now, this is actually happening right now, in real time; but, it's happening in reverse. Hedge Fund investors are betting that Game Stop stock are going to crash and once Reddit users found out about it, they started buying up a lot of Game Stop's stock. It looks like those Hedge Fund managers are about to take a major financial hit. Hedge Fund investors and managers realized that Game Stop's stock prices kept going down and they started betting that the stock would fall even further. Redditors found out what was going on and decided to screw up what they were trying to do. When this is all over and done with, it's going to cause a financial crash that could make the financial crash of 2008 look like child's play.
Dukes Lose 394 million, Valentine and Winthorpe (Murphy and Aykroyd) basically get it (number unconfirmed)....and Prince Akeem (Murphy) gives the Dukes Brothers a wad of cash in Coming to America (Mortimer WE'RE BACK!!!!!!).
I saw Coming to America in the theaters before I ever saw Trading Places. When Akeem gave them the money, and Randolph gave that line, the whole theater was roaring with laughter. I had no idea what was going on!
Nice, but I don't think Dan Akroyd has got the financials right. Billy Ray and Louis were the ones who were pulling the short. They were selling, while the Duke's were "Long" Orange Juice, because they were buying. So Billy Ray and Louis were selling borrowed Futures, because they knew the price would fall, while the Dukes were buying, because they thought the price would rise. When the news turned up, and showed that the OJ Crop was not blighted as had been thought, prices FELL! So, the Dukes were left bankrupt, and on the other side of the trade, BR and Louis were left with their pockets full of cash.
One thing that took me forever to figure out is that commodities are not like stocks. When you gain or lose money on stocks you don't actually realize either until you sell the stock. In the commodities market, when the market closes, you realize all gains or losses at the end of the day. It's way more dangerous than trading stocks! If you lose a billion dollars in one day of futures, you owe a billion dollars at the end of the day, whereas with stocks you could possibly hold a bit longer an recoup some or all of your losses without having to actually pay cash.
He explained it incorrectly. The dukes were not short trading, it was Billy Ray and Louis that were in short positions. The Dukes were in long positions. Here’s what happened: 1) The Dukes thought there would be shortage of oranges due to weather related poor crop harvest. So they thought prices of orange juice would rise. They started buying (long position) 2) When the market saw the Dukes were buying, they started buying too, so the price started going up 3) When the price was high enough, Louis and Billy Ray started selling orange juice futures contracts. This is the part people don’t get. This is called “short position”. Basically you sell what you don’t own. How does that work? You “borrow” the product - in this case orange juice futures contracts - and sell it. Since you “borrowed” it, you have to give it back. So how will you give it back if you’ve sold it? You have to buy back the contracts from the market, then you can pay back the contracts you “borrowed”. Why would anyone do such a thing? Because you believe the price will fall. This allows you to sell high, and buy low. 4) The price of orange futures contracts tanked after the real crop report came out, which showed the orange crop was just fine, despite the weather. When the price tanked, Louis and Billy Ray bought back the contracts at a very low price. But remember, they sold at a high price. So they made a HUGE profit (in the 10s of millions). At the same time, the contracts the Dukes bought at a high price, were now worth very little. So they lost a tremendous amount of money
Without a doubt great movie....though i would love to know how the people at stock markets before modern technology actually communicated, would the stock market really be that hectic
Winthrope and Valentine sold OJ futures short at 142 and bought them back all the way down to 32. A point in OJ futures is $150 so a 110 point move is $150*110= $16,500 per contract. Winthrope says "Sell 200 april at 142" So that is at least 200 contracts but they probably did a lot more than that because they traded with everybody in the pit. So yeah they made a lot of money.
Nino Don I think what he's saying is... 142 means 142 points, not Dollars. so they're selling 200 units, or contracts, for 142 points. If 1 point is $150, then he's selling one unit for $21,300. They then have to buy the units that they just sold, which they do after the price drops 110 points. Net profit before taxes would be $16,500 per unit, and based solely on the only discernible lines we hear in the movie, 16,500 * 200 units = $3.3 Million before taxes in 1983. Or $8,268,355.42 today. However, because of the chaos of the trading floor, their profits could be significantly more.
200 contracts per each trade. And they wrote hundreds of tickets in that scene. The implication is that they are on the other side of the $394M that the Dukes owed.
@boss dawg 142 means $1.42 per pound. One contract is for 15000 pounds. So if OJ went from 142 down to 32 they made $1.10 cents a pound X 15000 pounds = $16,500 per contract X 200 contracts = $3,300,000 on that ONE trade and they made MULTIPLE trades, They would need $1300 margin for each contract so $260,000 margin to cover that trade.
And then the old guys became homeless and made a cameo appearance in "Coming to America". You can see them when Eddy Murphy gives money to two streetbumbs. That was Duke and Mortimer.
Let me take a stab at this: the Duke's were buying all they could, because mistakenly, they believed there was a shortage coming in the orange supply/crop. That drove the price of frozen, concentrated orange juice way up. While the price was high, Aykroyd and Murphy's characters sold short (sold contracts they didn't own) at the top of the market. When the report of a plentiful supply came out, people tried to unload, and the price crashed. Once the price hit bottom, Aykoyd and Murphy bought cheap contracts to close out their position and lock in the profit. The Duke's were left owing for high priced contracts they loaded up on, which were leveraged, so the loss was multiplied. So Aykroyd and Murphy, sold high, then bought low, in that order.
The trading floor back then looked chaotic! How did anyone get an agreement to buy shares or sell shares. It look like it was just shouting back and forth and notes being scribbled. Couldn't someone have done an "backsie" and denying ever saying they wanted to sell or buy at the higher OJ price share?
Actually Ackroyd has it backwards as he explains the trade. The Dukes were long FCOJ with the expectation that there would be a shortage of OJ due to a freeze. Actually the opposite was true - OJ would have a nice harvest. Murphy and Aykroyd waited until the price hit 142 from the Dukes buying spree that was actually fairly orderly up to that point, and then started shorting contracts into the Dukes buying as traders thought the Dukes were cornering the market in long contracts. Murphy and Aykroyd were selling all the contracts they could into the buying frenzy and getting short in the process. Then when OJ had dropped to about 46, they started covering their shorts to close out their position. Therefore, it was the long trade that got messed up (demolished) by Murphy and Aykroyd.
Exactly, the goal was to bankrupted the Dukes which they did, not only did not have the cash to cover their loses but under federal law, there assists would be taken to cover the remaining debt.
I've had it explained to me that Dan and Eddie's characters sold OJ futures at a high price which caused the price to fall and resulted in bankrupting the Dukes, but what I've never understood is how they obtained all those OJ futures in the first place for them to sell.
Dan Akroyds comment is wrong. The Dukes were not shorting the market, they were long, expecting the Florida frost to destroy some of the orange crop thus pushing prices higher. Winthorpe and Billy-Ray shorted FCOJ knowing that the florida crop was not impacted by the frost. In essence, they sold high and bought low.
The way a friend of mine once described it… was you only have like 10,000 more sodas to buy, and that’s it. You run a taco stand, and your competing with other food stands. The evil hot dog stand “happens to know” that there “really is” only 10,000 sodas left… so regardless of how expensive they are, they’re going to buy it all. So he buys them all, and pays for them at a really high price. He knows that once the exchange closes, he’s going to be the only taco stand with soda. Meanwhile, you at your taco stand happen to know these sodas are not really finite… so you sell every last soda you have, and at a high price. while everyone thinks these are the last sodas available, you know better. That’s just not true. Just then, the soda companies tell everyone “oh, and by the way… we’ve got all the soda you need. We’re not limited.” Now all of a sudden these sodas are worth very little… but whose going to buy them? Everyone ran out of money buying them expensive - especially the hot dog stand. So… you just buy them aaaalllll back at like a 50 cents a pop. Meanwhile the evil hot dog stand is stuck with all of this worthless soda they can’t even give away. And they’re still forced to pay for it at market value (or the value it was listed during the exchange). Even after they sell them all back, they’re still in debt. Busted!!! And you? All you have to do is wait for the market to even out again at like $1.50 a pop and make your profit. Now do that, but with millions and millions of dollars worth of frozen oranges.
If the hot dog stand owner bought all the sodas, how is he the only taco stand with soda? Who has the sodas for sale: me or the exchange or the soda companies? If the sodas are worthless, and he can't even give them away, why would I buy them at 50C or any price? If I bought them aaalll back, how does the hot dog stand still have sodas with which they're stuck?
Trading Places is a shockingly good movie. Sort of gets lots because of the blockbusters Aykroyd and Murphy have under their belts, but Trading Places is so damn awesome. Clever, too.
Akroyd says that they were trying to screw up their short. But from the looks of activity in the pits, Winthorp and Valentine were the ones shorting the orange juice market, no?
That was the joy of watching director John Landis intertwining characters from 2 of his movies. How cool would it have been to even see a character from Animal House make a cameo appearance! Lol
Think of it this way, you can either buy now and sell later for a higher price. Or you can sell now (which you do not own) and buy it at a later date. This happens in stocks all the time, for a fee you can exercise a option to buy a stock at a future price and sell it right back to the broker at today's price. I know of someone who did this right before the big collapse in the DOW in 1987. He bought some 100,000 put options at $0.10 per option and due to the market collapse made something like $500.00 per option.
The Dukes were not trying to “short” OJ. The false report stated OJ crop was low due to the impact from the weather. Dukes intended to buy low then sell high to other brokers. The real report came back that weather did not impact OJ crop. So brokers began to dump their shares and brought the price down.
Yes, the Dukes started the buying frenzy 'Knowing that the report said that the orange juice crop had been affected by the weather'. That's why everyone was buying bc the Dukes 'kept buying'. The report came out.. and everyone had over leveraged and needed to sell as fast as possible. What the director didn't show in the movie was Akroyd and Murphy had purchased Orange Juice previously and already owned the shares (they had bought low). So after the report came out. Their shares had maybe 5X? That is when the selling frenzy happened at the end and they got rich because the report said 'the crop had not been affected' .
Andy Golay not necessarily. The prices were for futures contracts, which basically a hedge on what they think the price will be. Let’s say you have item X and it is worth $0.25 today. I think X will be worth $10.00 this time next year. You think it’ll go up in value too, but say only to a $1.50. Maybe you even think it’ll go down in value. So I come to you and buy a contract saying “l, slowpoke will buy X from you Andy precisely a year from now for $2.00...” you’re like cool, this idiot is gonna give me 2 bucks for X that only costed me a quarter, and for sure won’t be worth 2 dollars. Now a year comes. The price of X is what I thought it would be, $10.00. I still get to buy the X from u at the agreed price of 2 bucks, then I turn around and sell it for 10, and pocket an 8 buck profit. That’s what the duke brothers were expecting to happen, based on the report they read. Back to our example though, let’s look at the flip side. After a year, you were right, and X is only worth $0.10. But I still have to pay you the agreed upon $2.00. So now you’re up $1.75 and I am left with X, only worth $0.10. So I actually lost $1.90. But the kicker is, that $2.00 I paid you was from what’s called a margin account I had with the exchange. Margin is like credit or a loan. The $2.00 you got paid were from the exchange, and now I owe that $2.00 to the exchange when they “call” for it. If I can’t pay them the 2 bucks in cash when they make that call (the margin call), they automatically have the right to seize or garnish 2 bucks worth of anything I own of value, be it a house, car, jewelry, or for 2 bucks, a cheeseburger. Now, multiply that 2 bucks by about 150 million, and shrink the year down to about 3 minutes. That’s what happened to the dukes basically. Take the $1.75 you made from the price of X tanking and multiply that by the same 150 million. That’s what happened to Luis and billy Ray.
@@slowpoke96Z28 30 years after first seeing this film, FINALLY someone explains it in plain English! I think most non-financial types are thrown by Aykroyd's 'buy low, sell high' mantra which most people understand.
They are buying and selling orange juice futures contracts or OJ. One contract is for 15000 pounds of frozen concentrated orange juice. Right now it is selling for $1 to $1.30 a pound so one contract is worth $15000 to $19500. But you don't have to put up that much, margin is $1300 a contract with gains or losses settled at the end of the day. The Dukes thought the price was going up so they bought hundreds of contracts at higher and higher prices. Winthrop and Billy Ray waited until the price hit the peak then they sold short that means they sold contracts. When the crop report came out the price dropped like a rock. Winthrop and Billy Ray bought back the contracts they sold for cheap, making a huge profit, while the Dukes were stuck with hundreds of overpriced contracts and a loss of millions of dollars.
Dan Aykroyd stole the show. Now, every part was immaculate casting, but Dan was truly outstanding!
The part where he was homeless in a Santa Clause suit on a subway was hilarious.
"this is a $5000 custom timepiece that tells time simultaneously in NY, London and Gssssstaaaad". ; Bo Diddley: " in philadelphia, I'll give you fifty dollars."
Well... him and Jamie Lee Curtis during one of her scenes 😉 - LOL
@@vikramparmar8093"In Philadelphia...It's 50 Bucks".....How Much For The Gun?
@@vikramparmar8093In Philadelphia, it's worth 50 bucks. :-)
I’ve watched this movie every New Year’s Eve for the past 30 years. It’s a tradition I started with old college mates and now it’s my family who enjoys it.
“He was wearing my Harvard tie, like oh sure HE went to Harvard!” - Priceless.
Egg-nog?
I say that line all the time. Anyone that laughs at it/get's it is immediately my new best friend
"Is there a problem, officers?"
Dang this is a New Years movie. I was thinking it was just a Christmas movie but it's both. Now Dan has been in two New Years movies. This one and Ghostbusters 2.
@hootyhaha Yep, defo both. You can't disgrace a santa suit like that and not call it a Christmas movie.
I was hoping he'd explain why the men were all wearing sweaters in the tropics.
Yeah, I was wondering that myself. But a year later, Eddie Murphy wears long pants, and a letterman's jacket in Beverly Hills California, and it doens't look like winter.
Because they are both so *cool*, that they can *BE* in sweaters in the tropics. That was how I viewed it (even as a kid in the 80s) when I first saw it, lol.
LivingInVancouverBC It WAS just after New Year's if you recall. It can get pretty chilly then even in the Carib.
LivingInVancouverBC I wish that in that shot of Louis in the tropics, we see on his wrist the watch he had hocked earlier. Shows he bought it back.
That would have been a good scene to show, with Louis saying to Bo: "In Philadelphia...fifty bucks."
I love how the Duke brothers are the two homeless guys that Akeem gives the bag of cash to in Coming to America...
Yes one of the best EVER!
Akeem just had to be played by Eddie Murphy too
@@projectjt3149 he wrote the movies
That has happened in more than one move that Eddie has starred in.
In Life w/ Martin Lawrence he ( Eddie) gets into a fight w/ the big guy about the cornbread and tells him he knows a old lady named Della that hits harder than that, reference to Della Reese's character in Harlem Knights when he & she fought in the alley.
We’re back! LMAO
I love how Eddie worked with Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche in Coming to America. It was a lovely homage.
Very fun scene for sure!!!! for those paying attention.
"We're back!"
@@DavidPlassand don't forget...let's do Lunch !😂😮😅
You don't think they would REALLY let Eddie run their family business for them, do you?
Arguably one of the best comedy and revenge movies ever made. And Jamie Lee Curtis topless makes it even better.
Wonder if you'd say the same thing today? LOL
@@rstefanie2622 that’s very funny! Lol!
it was a very nice pair... yes sir!
@@rstefanie2622 she is likely still impressive; but aged.
@@rstefanie2622 I don’t mind a little hang time
One of my favorite comedies. Both are brilliant.
I love this movie so much, and it's such a great movie, for years I didn't even care about the fact I didn't completely understand the mechanisms at play. I was just happy they won.
The movie carefully left out some information for a couple of reasons. First, that scene was based on a real event, an attempt by brothers Nelson & Bunker Hunt to corner the silver market (which failed.) Second, the producers were worried if they spelled out precisely how Ackroyd & Murphy manipulated the market for their scheme to work, the producers could then be sued if anyone else attempted the same strategy. A reasonable concern, especially given the advanced in technology that would make it easier later.
Same. One of my fave movies ever.
Dan didn't quite explain the trading correctly when he said that a "short" was underway. He meant that the Dukes believed that a "shortage" of orange juice was underway because they received bogus "inside" information that oranges weren't going to be plentiful because of frost. Dan's and Eddie's characters, however, knew that the opposite was true and that the supplies of orange juice were going to be plentiful because they got the real inside information. So the Dukes foolishly were buying orange futures based on the bogus false shortage, while Dan's and Eddie's characters waited until the price got sufficiently high enough to begin selling short. Then, just before the real government report on the status of oranges was about to be released, everybody stops cold to listen. The report revealed that oranges supplies were plentiful and more supply meant lower prices. When trading resumes, Dan's and Eddie's characters just wait again as the price plunges from its inflated levels based on the bogus assumption that a shortage existed. Since futures are highly leveraged, the Dukes didn't have the money to cover their catastrophic losses, but Dan's and Eddie's characters made a "killing." So now you know exactly what was happening.
Dukes were trying to corner the market with the false OJ report which described a bad crop. Our hero’s knew the real report was unremarkable with no sign of supply failure. They thus waited for the price to go up and then sold short at the higher price. They would buy later to cover their position at a much lower price, thus earning the price/cost difference.
Spot on, well said!
I sti don't get the 'selling shorts' part. What were they selling?
@@5r3t5n0m Future OJ contracts. Markets are organised to allow you to sell something without owning it, much like credit allows you to buy something using money you don't own. In effect, you borrow the item so you can sell it, and close the position later by buying it back. You're betting on the price falling in the meantime.
@@lucasgroves137 gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks
I worked on comex then in bank trading rooms for 35 years. This is the most accurate depiction of trading in any movie, aside from the Dukes’ illegal trading of course.
I read somewhere that the only actors on the market floor were Aykroyd, Murphy, and the guy that was supposed to buy OJ for the Dukes. Everyone else were real floor traders and were told to act and do whatever they would act and do normally on the floor once Aykroyd's character yelled out "sell", and after hearing the crop report.
i'd figure that was one of the more accurate parts since republicans exist.
@@HeelturnOh Cope.
@@HeelturnOh And Nancy Pelosi 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@Danimal1177 Fun trivia: That other actor-the Dukes' man-was Richard Hunt. Remember how Frank Oz plays a cop in the first half of the movie? Well, Hunt was also a Muppeteer. He'd worked for Henson since the beginning of Sesame Street and was the voice of Forgetful Jones, Scooter, Janice, Beaker and many others. He died in 1992.
Still one of Eddie Murphy's best......his exchange student Denke Mboko from Cameroon still cracks me up everytime.....
+FMHammyJ I often sing the little greeting chant they do together on the train.. it perks me up and saves me from apocalyptic tendencies
+FMHammyJ
LIONELL!!!!
+66ott7 Mbullay mbullay mubullay ha!.....Mbullay, Mbullay, Mbullay ha!.hahaha....:)
FMHammyJ
It cracks me up too because I'm Cameroonian myself and my Parents love Eddie Murphy.
FMHammyJ "Merry New Year. Happy... In this country, we say happy. Thank you for correcting my English that stinks. ." hehehe LR
Trading Places is also the greatest Christmas movie ever. Even better than Die Hard. I said what I said.
You ain’t gonna jacuzzi nobody!
Agree, and Paul Gleason is in both of them.
For me its the best new years movie.
John Landis said it is NOT a Christmas movie just a movie that happens to take place at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.
Yea!
Having worked for a couple Wall Street firms in my career, this movie is very accurate for the timeframe in which it was made. One of my favorite movies of all time too!
Every time my hair gets in my sandwich, I always go back to Dan eating the beard salmon on the bus.
Me too!
“Mortimer, I don’t think your brother is well..”
“Fuck him!! Get those traders back in here! Turn those machines back on!!”
Interestingly..this line almost didn’t happen. Don Ameche as Randolph, refused to utter that Fbomb, as he was against ever using such a word. He was talked into it by the Director, and there you go...an iconic movie line that almost didn’t happen!
@@GogglzPisano I believe he told Landis that he'd only say it once and that they didn't print that take, too bad.
YOU & YOUR NOBEL PRIZE, YOU IDIOT !!!
@@GogglzPisano but he had no problem using the N-word...
@@HacksignKT actually Don Amache had a MAJOR problem with saying the N word as well! Both Eddie Murphy & Dan Ackroyd has to practically beg him to say that word as well. He gave the same response; he’d say it once and no more takes. You gotta hand it to him that he had convictions about using ANY foul language.
"Bacon...as might be found in a ...bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich....!"
According to Eddie Murphy they re-did this in about 16 takes until they got his look right
PRICELESS!! NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. LOL
What's a sandwich ?
Best thing in the whole movie!
He looked into the camera in an earlier scene.
This movie is SO underrated. It is a masterpiece. John Landis, during this period made Animal House, American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America... even Three Amigos, and this movie... all comic masterpieces.
In what way is it underrated? It's a very popular movie that did very well at the box office. 🙄
I have more than one DVD of this movie. I had one that was perfectly adequate, but then they released one with a special feature explanation of the whole shorting thing that happened at the end. I bought the DVD purely for that. No regrets.
I'm hoping in the future they release a DVD with a recipe for delicious beard salmon.
"Delicious Beard Salmon" - awesome! Thank you for making my NYE even better.
why not 4K?
@@rolandofgilead43 I probably need to get that. I don't have a 4K player yet but I'm thinking about getting one. I already have a Lawrence of Arabia 4K that I wisely purchased before it went sky high due to going out of print.
@ I have a one x, series x and ps5 and all those are 4k players I don’t dunno if you are a gamer
One of the truly great comedies of all time. John Landis from the late '70's to late '80's was untouchable.
Would have been more fitting for them to be drinking Orange Juice (or Mimosas at the very least) instead of Champagne at the ending.
TheKersey475 that wouldve been amazing
Every dealer knows you don't consume your own product.
Rhythmicons 😉
best scene is when hes drunk in the street dressed like santa holding that huge piece of salmon that he stole
No Question!
I don't think Dan gets enough credit for his work in this movie.
+00bikeboy or Dr. Detroit lolllll
*****
thats what im talkin bout
And tearing into it on the Bus...grossing out the lady passengers....;-)
Fun fact: eddie murphy himself said trading places is his favorite movie of his entire career because according to him he had so much fun making the movie it didn't feel like work. Where all of the rest of his movies felt like work.
For those curious, it was estimated that Dan and Eddie would have cleared over 25 million in that trading time. And that is 25 million back in the 80s.
definatly enough to buy a private island!
Adjusting for inflation that 1 dollar circa 1983 would be worth 2.78 today in 2021. So a little over $69 1/2 million between the Dan and Eddie's characters. Not bad.
What was even more shocking was the amount the Dukes lost. $394 millions dollars in 1983 is worth over $1.1 billion today!
Thank you! after all these years I was trying to figure out how much they allegedly. After 30 plus years mystery solved
Lol. Eddie wrapping his legs around Dan. A brilliant comedy touch that I just now noticed for the first time. 😂
Buy low, sell high. Advice that changed my life!
"Buy low, sell high. It doesn't matter which order you do those in"
Here's what happened in plain english:
Evil guys think they know that OJ prices will be higher in the future so they buy a bunch of shares.
Other traders see this and also buy a lot of OJ shares, causing prices to skyrocket.
Dan and Eddie ACTUALLY know that OJ prices will be super low (due to a great crop this year) so they borrow massive amounts of shares at high prices and immediately sell them (called "shorting" because of the short duration they possessed the stock).
They now have lots of cash...but still owe someone the shares they borrowed. They now need the price to plummet so they can buy shares cheap to return them and keep the difference.
To get the price to plummet, they sell OJ "futures" for cheap, promising to deliver the OJ at a later date. They can do this, remember, because they know that the crop is great and prices will be super low in the near future.
When Dan yells "Sell 30 April at 142" he's announcing that he's selling 30 contracts (3,000 shares) of OJ for $142/share. He gets the cash now and will deliver the OJ on April 30th.
All the traders then sell their expensive OJ shares and buy Dan and Eddie's cheap futures, causing the OJ price to collapse.
Evil guys still think prices will be high so they don't sell. They're now massively in the hole. They bought a ton of OJ at super high prices and now OJ is selling for pennies on the dollar.
The news then announces that the OJ crop is great and prices will be low.
Dan and Eddie buy OJ shares at super low prices and return them to the owner. They get to keep the difference. They're rich!
But it gets even better! It turns out that the evil guys borrowed money from the exchange (i.e., "going on margin") to buy their expensive OJ and the exchange demands to be paid back immediately the difference between the price they borrowed at (super high) and the current price (super low). This is called a "margin call" and it bankrupts them.
I've never seen the movie so I don't know why the evil guys are evil and why Dan and Eddie want revenge. Maybe someone can explain that to me in plain english.
Evil guys were Dan’s character’s bosses and mentors, and he was their golden boy. One day they decide to bet a dollar that they could bankrupt him and put a black homeless man on the exchange, teach him the same things, and make him rich. This scheme was their revenge on the Dukes
@@thepunditspundit1776 Ah. Thanks! So the bosses treated him like his life was just a plaything, right? And that's why he's mad? Were the bosses betting that Dan wasn't special (i.e., that any homeless person could do his job)? Or were they betting that it took brains and skill to do his job? Who exactly were the Dukes betting with? And Eddie was the homeless man, right? And was Dan and Eddie's ultimate triumph evidence that it indeed took skill and brains to do Dan's job? Or the opposite?
@@KidFreshie it was a bet between the duke brothers. One thought the homeless guy could do the job, the other didn’t think he could. Homeless guy overheard one paying the other the one dollar in the bathroom after homeless guy was crushing the job.
@@pwilliam255 OK thanks! So they essentially ruined Dan Aykroyd's life for a dollar?
@@KidFreshie exactly. That’s why the homeless character turns on them and help Louie get revenge and his money back. The homeless guy had more character than the 2 wealthy titans. That’s the moral of the story.
The Philadelphia Mint (now the Community College of Philadelphia) was the set for the police station's exterior. At the time I was working demolition at the mint and got to meet the stars. I was impressed with the work ethic and the long hours it took to produce the film.
The ending still works even if, like me, you don’t fully understand what just happened, even after reading multiple explanations of it years later as an adult. You get the basic gist of it: they had the right information, the Dukes had the wrong information, and they used that asymmetry of knowledge to make the right moves while tricking the Dukes into making the wrong moves. The actual complexities of the process can be glossed over by the dramatic momentum.
What happened was insider trading but Dan and Eddie gave them the wrong information it was something about the orange crops so they thought the price of the stock would go up but it didnt
@@rbeck3200tb40 They were not trading stock. They were trading futures. A totally different animal. Commodities trading is different. And anyone who does not understand how this works is probably a MAGAtard® since the Duke brothers explained it in layman's terms to Eddie Murphy.
@@downtownbillyandthenewjivefive False. They explained the basics to Eddie Murphy's character, not the complexities on how commodities trading really works. The commodities market as you correctly pointed out is not for the faint of heart. Political affiliation has no bearing on how much someone understands the complexities of commodities trading. If you are going to act arrogant and talk down to people, it would behoove you to be bright and knowledgeable yourself.
Essentially, the way a short sale works in this film is that you can sell stocks (futures, in this case,) even if you don't actually have them. As long as you have them by the end of trading, it's legal (of course, if you don't you have to buy them at the current price, whatever that is.) The deal is for contracts, not cash, when you're selling. As long you provide the number of contracts you said you would, legally, the price you bought them at doesn't matter. So essentially the protagonists, when they sell the OJ futures at 142 get a promise from all the buyers (that they cannot break, it's legally binding,) that they will buy those contracts for that price. When the price drops as a result of selling, desperate traders who have those futures are trying to get rid of them to minimize their losses. The protagonists then buy the futures they need to fulfill the sales they made at 29, meaning they keep the difference since all they have to provide at the end of the day is the contracts they sold. They're paid by the buyers and use the money to pay for the contracts THEY bought, then give them to the people they sold them to. Since they got more money for the sales than they had to spend buying back the contracts, they make a large amount of money. The Dukes, on the other hand, expected the price of OJ would go up due to the false information they got. They bought the shares on margin (essentially, a one day loan from the stock exchange due at the end of trading) since they didn't actually have the money on hand or in assets to pay for the number of contracts they wanted to buy. Since the contracts they have bought cost much more than the current price to sell (and the protagonists refused to buy from the Dukes) all they have are contracts that don't meet the amount of cash they owe due to buying on margin. Therefore, since their debt is due and payable immediately, the exchange orders all their assets seized to pay the debt they owe (and likely sues them or seizes whatever property the put up as collateral) to pay the rest of the debt, ruining them financially. Their seats on the board are just more assets the exchange can sell to raise the money, so they lose those as well, as well as all the current stock holdings they have to be sold to pay the debt, and their stock brokerage firm is also seized to pay the debts.
@@kettch777 thank you! This makes perfect sense how you explained it. They sold at 142 and bought at 29 keeping the 113 as profit, as the Dukes had to pay the difference per contract.
Dan Ackroyd is an American treasure.
@Too Wun Even he would have told Harris what Biden should have told her:"Kamala,you ignorant slut."
He is Canadian...lol
@@carsonagenic6285 Well let's just say that when I look into his eyes, Mister, I get a different message and we''ll leave it at that.
WRONG. He's Canadian.
The buying of stock makes the price go up, Eddie & Akroyd wait for the price to hit a specific high. It opens at 102. That's when the Dukes start buying. When it gets to 142 Eddie and Akroyd announce they're selling. Drives the price down. Now when the report comes out, the price drops significantly. All the way down to 29. So the Dukes bought at 102 and higher and it plummeted to 29, so they owe all the loss. Eddie and Akroyd sold at 142 and bought at a price as low as 29.
It wasn't until I started doing commodity trading that I understood how much these guys made.
Leave it Aykroyd to come up with a completely different kind of comedy. One that shows the guts of something without confusing the audience too much. Ghostbusters and The Blue Brothers are other favorites of mine.
Fantastic movie. Seen it 100 times (or at least dozens). Unfortunately, the iconic Dan Akroyd explains the end of the movie backwards. Its the heroes who are shorting the Orange futures market, not the Dukes. The Dukes paid for an illegal advance copy of the Farm Report. Our guys intercept the Farm Report and give the Dukes a report that says the opposite of the actual report. The Dukes then go long on Orange Futures. But Akroyd & Murphy’s characters (knowing the correct information) Short the Orange Futures Market. To short means to sell before you buy. They sold first after the Dukes inflated the market. Then, after the true Farm Report came out and the Orange Futures market tanked, then they bought.
That’s essentially how shorting a stock works. Technically, it’s slightly more complicated as it involves promising to buy in the future at today’s set price. But functionally its selling before you buy.
the dukes were buying concentrate since the bogus weather report said frost damaged the crop thereby fresh orange juice was going to be in short supply.
At the time when the movie was made this type of insider trading wasn't strickly illegal - it was only in 2011 that the CFTC introduced a so called 'Eddie Murphy Rule' to make it illegal.
I found out recently that, at the time the movie was filmed, the trading that Louis and Billy Ray did was not illegal. They maybe could be charged with physical theft of the agriculture reports and the briefcase that they were in, but trading commodities on insider information was not illegal in 1983.
This is the movie that sparked my fascination with commodities markets. 30 years later and I'm playing it myself, but not orange juice or the softs, mostly energy and metals.
I totally agree! This movie has everything! And a great shot of Jamie Lee Curtis topless too!
Excellent film. Alongside Coming to America.
Lisa: What did you give him?
Akeem: Oh I just gave him some pocket change.
If anyone has been paying attention to the stock market right now, this is actually happening right now, in real time; but, it's happening in reverse. Hedge Fund investors are betting that Game Stop stock are going to crash and once Reddit users found out about it, they started buying up a lot of Game Stop's stock. It looks like those Hedge Fund managers are about to take a major financial hit. Hedge Fund investors and managers realized that Game Stop's stock prices kept going down and they started betting that the stock would fall even further. Redditors found out what was going on and decided to screw up what they were trying to do. When this is all over and done with, it's going to cause a financial crash that could make the financial crash of 2008 look like child's play.
He was wearing my Harvard tie... my _Harvard_ tie: Like, oh sure... *_he_* went to _Harvard_
Haavaad.
Dukes Lose 394 million, Valentine and Winthorpe (Murphy and Aykroyd) basically get it (number unconfirmed)....and Prince Akeem (Murphy) gives the Dukes Brothers a wad of cash in Coming to America (Mortimer WE'RE BACK!!!!!!).
Eh, I almost forgot about that... "Mortimer, we're back"..
Very funny.
That was a nice touch
I saw Coming to America in the theaters before I ever saw Trading Places. When Akeem gave them the money, and Randolph gave that line, the whole theater was roaring with laughter. I had no idea what was going on!
Also Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliot got plenty. I think they both gave Louis all their liquid assets.
Leave me alone Mortimer! I'm still not talking to you!
One of the all time best of the best👏
I love Dan Aykroyd.
i still love this movie even on 2024 ,and im a big fan of Dan Aykroyd
Best original SNL cast member.
Me too and it's 9 hours til 2025.
One of all time favs
Dan Akroyd - please make more movies. You're the best!!
Who is here in 2019. Just finished watching this movie
12 / 31 / 2024
1-3-2025
2025 HNY😂😂
Now this is extremely cool - Dan Aykroyd himself!
Brilliant idea!
Happy New Year 2025! 🎉
Why does ANYONE need this movie to be explained?? 😮
Not anyone, Bloomberg.
Because most people don’t understand markets - never mind shorting -
This is one of those great movies I watched tons of times as a child and still love it at age 41
“It was the Dukes!!!....It was the Dukes!!”
You're a dead man Valentine!!!
It's was Wild to See Them Homeless in "Coming to America". LOL (smile) You Get What You Get'.
The first time I saw Trading Places was in the classroom (on VHS), as an illustrative lesson on the stock market.
I'm sure when Ophelia took her top off it got very quiet in the classroom
Nice, but I don't think Dan Akroyd has got the financials right. Billy Ray and Louis were the ones who were pulling the short. They were selling, while the Duke's were "Long" Orange Juice, because they were buying. So Billy Ray and Louis were selling borrowed Futures, because they knew the price would fall, while the Dukes were buying, because they thought the price would rise. When the news turned up, and showed that the OJ Crop was not blighted as had been thought, prices FELL! So, the Dukes were left bankrupt, and on the other side of the trade, BR and Louis were left with their pockets full of cash.
Exactly
As many people have said, it’s illegal to screw up a short, but only when you’re not rich.
Now explain why you guys wear sweaters in the tropics while the ladies are wearing bikinis.
Late January morning. It does get cool.
That's fine for explaining the sweater. Not for explaining the bikini. They are dressed differently for the same weather conditions.
Who really wants to see dan and Eddie in bikinis anyway?
That sounds hot!
Yeah and how can they hear each other? ! From boat to beach....no way!
They were great together! Would be awesome if they collaberated again.
One of my favourite movies ever... eddie killed it. Winthorpe was hilarious too😂
One thing that took me forever to figure out is that commodities are not like stocks. When you gain or lose money on stocks you don't actually realize either until you sell the stock. In the commodities market, when the market closes, you realize all gains or losses at the end of the day. It's way more dangerous than trading stocks! If you lose a billion dollars in one day of futures, you owe a billion dollars at the end of the day, whereas with stocks you could possibly hold a bit longer an recoup some or all of your losses without having to actually pay cash.
This was a fun movie. I still enjoy watching it from time to time.
He explained it incorrectly. The dukes were not short trading, it was Billy Ray and Louis that were in short positions. The Dukes were in long positions. Here’s what happened:
1) The Dukes thought there would be shortage of oranges due to weather related poor crop harvest. So they thought prices of orange juice would rise. They started buying (long position)
2) When the market saw the Dukes were buying, they started buying too, so the price started going up
3) When the price was high enough, Louis and Billy Ray started selling orange juice futures contracts. This is the part people don’t get. This is called “short position”. Basically you sell what you don’t own. How does that work? You “borrow” the product - in this case orange juice futures contracts - and sell it. Since you “borrowed” it, you have to give it back. So how will you give it back if you’ve sold it? You have to buy back the contracts from the market, then you can pay back the contracts you “borrowed”. Why would anyone do such a thing? Because you believe the price will fall. This allows you to sell high, and buy low.
4) The price of orange futures contracts tanked after the real crop report came out, which showed the orange crop was just fine, despite the weather. When the price tanked, Louis and Billy Ray bought back the contracts at a very low price. But remember, they sold at a high price. So they made a HUGE profit (in the 10s of millions). At the same time, the contracts the Dukes bought at a high price, were now worth very little. So they lost a tremendous amount of money
One of the BEST movies.......Ever!!!
Without a doubt great movie....though i would love to know how the people at stock markets before modern technology actually communicated, would the stock market really be that hectic
Trading Places often gets overlooked as a buddy comedy but it's one of the greatest of this genre. Aykroyd and Murphy? Impeccable
How is it overlooked?
Buddy Comedy? It's brilliant satire
One of my favourite Holiday movies!
Winthrope and Valentine sold OJ futures short at 142 and bought them back all the way down to 32. A point in OJ futures is $150 so a 110 point move is $150*110= $16,500 per contract. Winthrope says "Sell 200 april at 142" So that is at least 200 contracts but they probably did a lot more than that because they traded with everybody in the pit. So yeah they made a lot of money.
Nino Don
I think what he's saying is... 142 means 142 points, not Dollars. so they're selling 200 units, or contracts, for 142 points. If 1 point is $150, then he's selling one unit for $21,300. They then have to buy the units that they just sold, which they do after the price drops 110 points. Net profit before taxes would be $16,500 per unit, and based solely on the only discernible lines we hear in the movie, 16,500 * 200 units = $3.3 Million before taxes in 1983. Or $8,268,355.42 today. However, because of the chaos of the trading floor, their profits could be significantly more.
200 contracts per each trade. And they wrote hundreds of tickets in that scene. The implication is that they are on the other side of the $394M that the Dukes owed.
@boss dawg 142 means $1.42 per pound. One contract is for 15000 pounds. So if OJ went from 142 down to 32 they made $1.10 cents a pound X 15000 pounds = $16,500 per contract X 200 contracts = $3,300,000 on that ONE trade and they made MULTIPLE trades,
They would need $1300 margin for each contract so $260,000 margin to cover that trade.
The margin call for the Dukes was $330 million. I imagine that Winthorpe and Valentine made something close to that on the positive side.
Love to hear his take on the African/Jamaican scene on the train.
Put simply: They bought low and sold high, just in the opposite order.
it made no sense to me until I learned about "shorting" a stock.
"Trading Places, which turns 30 this year" Me thinking, man I'm old. *sees video was posted 10 years ago* me starts crying.
I'm right there with you 😂
And then the old guys became homeless and made a cameo appearance in "Coming to America". You can see them when Eddy Murphy gives money to two streetbumbs. That was Duke and Mortimer.
Dan looks absolutely fantastic. Best he's looked in years.
It’s amazing to see Prince Akeem share his wealth with the Dukes in Coming To America
Let me take a stab at this: the Duke's were buying all they could, because mistakenly, they believed there was a shortage coming in the orange supply/crop. That drove the price of frozen, concentrated orange juice way up. While the price was high, Aykroyd and Murphy's characters sold short (sold contracts they didn't own) at the top of the market. When the report of a plentiful supply came out, people tried to unload, and the price crashed. Once the price hit bottom, Aykoyd and Murphy bought cheap contracts to close out their position and lock in the profit. The Duke's were left owing for high priced contracts they loaded up on, which were leveraged, so the loss was multiplied. So Aykroyd and Murphy, sold high, then bought low, in that order.
William: “Ya’ll a couple of bookies.” Randolph: “See. I told you he would understand.”
That is in reality what they are. They are making money on predictions just like bookies are in races and sports events.
Yeah, I lived Downtown, so I understood how to trade commodities; but A+ movie!
He got the explanation wrong. There was no "short" going on , DUKES went LONG. Aykroyd and Murpheys characters went SHORT against the Dukes.
The trading floor back then looked chaotic! How did anyone get an agreement to buy shares or sell shares. It look like it was just shouting back and forth and notes being scribbled. Couldn't someone have done an "backsie" and denying ever saying they wanted to sell or buy at the higher OJ price share?
Actually Ackroyd has it backwards as he explains the trade. The Dukes were long FCOJ with the expectation that there would be a shortage of OJ due to a freeze. Actually the opposite was true - OJ would have a nice harvest. Murphy and Aykroyd waited until the price hit 142 from the Dukes buying spree that was actually fairly orderly up to that point, and then started shorting contracts into the Dukes buying as traders thought the Dukes were cornering the market in long contracts. Murphy and Aykroyd were selling all the contracts they could into the buying frenzy and getting short in the process. Then when OJ had dropped to about 46, they started covering their shorts to close out their position. Therefore, it was the long trade that got messed up (demolished) by Murphy and Aykroyd.
100% correct....I worked in the bond pit at the Chicago Board Of Trade....so I know your spot on...
Exactly.
They didn't have to compete with the Dukes' money. They just had to trick the Dukes into buying huge into something that was about to crash.
Exactly, the goal was to bankrupted the Dukes which they did, not only did not have the cash to cover their loses but under federal law, there assists would be taken to cover the remaining debt.
Caesar Seriona *Assets ?
I've had it explained to me that Dan and Eddie's characters sold OJ futures at a high price which caused the price to fall and resulted in bankrupting the Dukes, but what I've never understood is how they obtained all those OJ futures in the first place for them to sell.
Definitely in my top 10, really close to my top five all-time favorite comedy movie. And it’s a movie that still holds up today.
Dan Akroyds comment is wrong. The Dukes were not shorting the market, they were long, expecting the Florida frost to destroy some of the orange crop thus pushing prices higher. Winthorpe and Billy-Ray shorted FCOJ knowing that the florida crop was not impacted by the frost. In essence, they sold high and bought low.
Aykroyd is a legend and is highly under-rated!
One of the greatest movie scripts
Ever written .
The cast is what makes it work .
Pure
Movie magic.
The way a friend of mine once described it… was you only have like 10,000 more sodas to buy, and that’s it. You run a taco stand, and your competing with other food stands. The evil hot dog stand “happens to know” that there “really is” only 10,000 sodas left… so regardless of how expensive they are, they’re going to buy it all. So he buys them all, and pays for them at a really high price. He knows that once the exchange closes, he’s going to be the only taco stand with soda. Meanwhile, you at your taco stand happen to know these sodas are not really finite… so you sell every last soda you have, and at a high price. while everyone thinks these are the last sodas available, you know better. That’s just not true. Just then, the soda companies tell everyone “oh, and by the way… we’ve got all the soda you need. We’re not limited.” Now all of a sudden these sodas are worth very little… but whose going to buy them? Everyone ran out of money buying them expensive - especially the hot dog stand. So… you just buy them aaaalllll back at like a 50 cents a pop. Meanwhile the evil hot dog stand is stuck with all of this worthless soda they can’t even give away. And they’re still forced to pay for it at market value (or the value it was listed during the exchange). Even after they sell them all back, they’re still in debt. Busted!!! And you? All you have to do is wait for the market to even out again at like $1.50 a pop and make your profit.
Now do that, but with millions and millions of dollars worth of frozen oranges.
If the hot dog stand owner bought all the sodas, how is he the only taco stand with soda? Who has the sodas for sale: me or the exchange or the soda companies? If the sodas are worthless, and he can't even give them away, why would I buy them at 50C or any price? If I bought them aaalll back, how does the hot dog stand still have sodas with which they're stuck?
Haven't had FCOJ since a kid, during our quarantine started buying again.
Stilll tastes Great.& this movie make it come full circle🍊
Trading Places is a shockingly good movie. Sort of gets lots because of the blockbusters Aykroyd and Murphy have under their belts, but Trading Places is so damn awesome. Clever, too.
Definitely one of my all-time favorite movies ❤
I honestly think Dan should have won Best Actor for this.
Akroyd says that they were trying to screw up their short. But from the looks of activity in the pits, Winthorp and Valentine were the ones shorting the orange juice market, no?
the Dukes also got help from Prince Akeem Joffer in trading places
they were the homeless 2 that he gave cash to in Coming To America
They're Back
The Limo driver from Trading Places is also the Limo driver at the end of Coming to America.
That was the joy of watching director John Landis intertwining characters from 2 of his movies. How cool would it have been to even see a character from Animal House make a cameo appearance! Lol
One of my favorite movies!
I love that movie... It's a classic...
I think it is the only movie that actually resulted in a new federal law. Affectionately known as the "Eddie Murphy Law".
That was very clear. Any questions?
we adore Dan 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞
Think of it this way, you can either buy now and sell later for a higher price. Or you can sell now (which you do not own) and buy it at a later date. This happens in stocks all the time, for a fee you can exercise a option to buy a stock at a future price and sell it right back to the broker at today's price. I know of someone who did this right before the big collapse in the DOW in 1987. He bought some 100,000 put options at $0.10 per option and due to the market collapse made something like $500.00 per option.
One of the best movies ever made. Funny as hel*!
That's spelled "hell".
The Dukes were not trying to “short” OJ. The false report stated OJ crop was low due to the impact from the weather. Dukes intended to buy low then sell high to other brokers. The real report came back that weather did not impact OJ crop. So brokers began to dump their shares and brought the price down.
Yes, the Dukes started the buying frenzy 'Knowing that the report said that the orange juice crop had been affected by the weather'. That's why everyone was buying bc the Dukes 'kept buying'. The report came out.. and everyone had over leveraged and needed to sell as fast as possible. What the director didn't show in the movie was Akroyd and Murphy had purchased Orange Juice previously and already owned the shares (they had bought low). So after the report came out. Their shares had maybe 5X? That is when the selling frenzy happened at the end and they got rich because the report said 'the crop had not been affected' .
@@TechFrontierX Exactly, so it was Akroyd and Murphy characters who shorted the stock.
This explained nothing to the layman.
Andy Golay not necessarily. The prices were for futures contracts, which basically a hedge on what they think the price will be. Let’s say you have item X and it is worth $0.25 today. I think X will be worth $10.00 this time next year. You think it’ll go up in value too, but say only to a $1.50. Maybe you even think it’ll go down in value. So I come to you and buy a contract saying “l, slowpoke will buy X from you Andy precisely a year from now for $2.00...” you’re like cool, this idiot is gonna give me 2 bucks for X that only costed me a quarter, and for sure won’t be worth 2 dollars. Now a year comes. The price of X is what I thought it would be, $10.00. I still get to buy the X from u at the agreed price of 2 bucks, then I turn around and sell it for 10, and pocket an 8 buck profit. That’s what the duke brothers were expecting to happen, based on the report they read. Back to our example though, let’s look at the flip side. After a year, you were right, and X is only worth $0.10. But I still have to pay you the agreed upon $2.00. So now you’re up $1.75 and I am left with X, only worth $0.10. So I actually lost $1.90. But the kicker is, that $2.00 I paid you was from what’s called a margin account I had with the exchange. Margin is like credit or a loan. The $2.00 you got paid were from the exchange, and now I owe that $2.00 to the exchange when they “call” for it. If I can’t pay them the 2 bucks in cash when they make that call (the margin call), they automatically have the right to seize or garnish 2 bucks worth of anything I own of value, be it a house, car, jewelry, or for 2 bucks, a cheeseburger. Now, multiply that 2 bucks by about 150 million, and shrink the year down to about 3 minutes. That’s what happened to the dukes basically. Take the $1.75 you made from the price of X tanking and multiply that by the same 150 million. That’s what happened to Luis and billy Ray.
slowpoke96z28 most helpful explanation Ive read..
@@slowpoke96Z28 30 years after first seeing this film, FINALLY someone explains it in plain English! I think most non-financial types are thrown by Aykroyd's 'buy low, sell high' mantra which most people understand.
They are buying and selling orange juice futures contracts or OJ. One contract is for 15000 pounds of frozen concentrated orange juice. Right now it is selling for $1 to $1.30 a pound so one contract is worth $15000 to $19500. But you don't have to put up that much, margin is $1300 a contract with gains or losses settled at the end of the day.
The Dukes thought the price was going up so they bought hundreds of contracts at higher and higher prices. Winthrop and Billy Ray waited until the price hit the peak then they sold short that means they sold contracts. When the crop report came out the price dropped like a rock. Winthrop and Billy Ray bought back the contracts they sold for cheap, making a huge profit, while the Dukes were stuck with hundreds of overpriced contracts and a loss of millions of dollars.
I loved Dan Aykroyd's expression after he paid Eddie Murphy as they left the trading floor.
Touche' (smile)
I love almost all of Dan’s movies - exceptional talent. My only wish is that he had made more back in the 80’s and 90’s.
Dr detriot