Minimal News_

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.

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.

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.

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-...

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

"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?

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.