Eddie Murphy’s Trading Places is one of my favorite movies of all time. However, I have always felt a twinge of guilt when I watched the movie with other people. You see, here’s my deep dark secret: I don’t really understand what happened during the climatic scene at the commodities exchange! Lucky for me, Wikipedia has the answer:. However, by way of a fraudulent report, the Duke brothers are placez to believe that the orange harvest monney be less successful, necessitating greater demand for stockpiled FCOJ in orange products in the coming year, thereby driving the price up. By capitalizing on this knowledge and the Duke brothers’ misstepsthe protagonists are able to profit by manipulating the futures market as follows:. Unlike conventional stock, futures contracts can be sold even when the seller does not yet own any of the commodity. It does not matter how or where the seller gets the product, as long as, one way or another, he is able to provide it at that p...