Trading Places - Can someone explain the ending?

Question

Trading Places has got to be one of my all time favourite comedies, I have seen it many times with friends over the past couple of decades, but we are always at a loss when it comes to the ending of the movie.

I get the overall picture, Billy Ray and Winthorpe screw the Dukes over by delivering their fabricated version of the orange growth report, and using the savings of Ophelia and Coleman they play the stock market to their advantage, but it’s the playing the stock market bit where I loose the plot, at one point they jump up and down with joy over a number on a stock market board at the end of days trading, I know this means they have made a load of cash, but what does this number mean? As it's just a couple of digits.

And how exactly do they manage to make the Dukes bankrupt in the process?

Answer 1

Okay. From the start I'll admit that, criminaly, I haven't seen it in a year, or so - so blow, for blow this is not. However, the explenatons pretty striaght foward.
Cast your mind back and you'll remember that they were trading on the futures market, this is key. Futures, are essentialy betting on things yet to come. In the case of the movie it was the state of the oringe juice industry. They had convinced the Dukes that the O.J. crop was disasterous when in fact it was great. What that meant is that, as the sale of O.J. to the public is pretty much at a fixed rate, the industry has a very good idea on the ultimate amount of oringes nessacary to make the product. If the crop is bad the price of oringes go up - the fewer the orenges the pricer they'll ultimate be worth.
Once the Dukes reliased their mistake, thier only option was to sell stock quickley before everyone else correctly analysed the situation, but the news was out and when ever a respected group, like the Dukes, sell a lot of stock, the market looses faith in that stock and sells, driving the price down even more rapidly - much lower than it's actual value.

Essentially, the Dukes bought overblown stock then sold it all a few minutes after. That allowed Ray and Winthorpe to purchase the same stock for a fraction of it's true value once everyone else followed the Dukes lead, causing a ralley.
The reason they're all able to live in paradise is that eventually convidence in the stock will return and O.J. returns to it's true price (somewhere between what the Dukes payed and the rock bottom price everyone sold for).

Answer 2

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Answer 3

It's been years since I've seen the movie, but didn't they short sell the stock? They sold shares when the prices were high. Then when the report was released, the prices dropped and then they bought enough shares to cover the short. Basically, they bought at low prices and sold at high prices, resulting in a hefty profit.

Answer 4

Yeah, It was a short sell, but they also gave the Dukes a fake report, so they thought the price of oranges was going up. Remember they dropped all that loot to steal the report.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

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Answer 7

they just do......i admit its a bit foggy.....those not into stock markets.......but we just take it that the Dukes r bankrupt...
good film tho'........always worth a look....