Movies - Trading Places

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	Movies - Trading Places

Trading Places is a 1983 comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It was produced by Aaron Russo.

Plot

The basic plot is based on the Three Stooges 1935 short film "Hoi Polloi". As an "experiment into heredity versus environment" and for a bet, two immensely wealthy and patrician brothers, Mortimer and Randolph Duke (played by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy), arrange for two other men to "trade places":

Louis Winthorpe III
(played by Dan Aykroyd
), is a respectable senior employee of the Dukes, and manages their investment bank. He attended Exeter and Harvard. He is greatly humiliated through the machinations of the Dukes. He is falsely accused of theft and drug dealing, and thrown in jail. He is fired from his job, and in short order he loses his home, his possessions, and his money. As a result of this, his friends and his fiancee (Penelope Witherspoon) turn their backs on him. The speed with which this happens drives Winthorpe to crime, culminating in his rampaging through the Duke & Duke Christmas party (dressed as Santa Claus) with a loaded gun. However, he is supported by a prostitute named Ophelia (played by Jamie Lee Curtis
) who takes pity on him.

Beggar and hustler Billy Ray Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy
) is given Winthorpe's job, his house, his butler Coleman (played by Denholm Elliott
), his car and other possessions - but he is not made aware that these belonged to someone else. Finding himself in a much-improved situation, and no longer having any need to break the law, Billy Ray starts to behave like a responsible and honest citizen. His unique background brings a new thinking to Wall Street, and he begins to integrate his skills with the business world. Soon, everyone seeks Valentine’s financial advice.

When Billy Ray finds out about the Dukes' bet and their intention to put him back on the streets, he seeks out the destitute Winthorpe and explains the situation. Along with Ophelia and Coleman, they devise a plan to take revenge. The Dukes' arrangement of using inside information to earn money on the commodities market is made to backfire when Winthorpe and Billy Ray intentionally and surreptitiously feed the Dukes false information regarding the crop report. This causes the Dukes to misplay the market and bankrupt themselves in the process in a highly fictionalized, Hollywood-style moment (which completely misrepresents the activities in the commodities markets) but which is still thoroughly entertaining. Simultaneously, Valentine and Winthorpe use the correct information themselves to get rich.

Explanation of climax scene

With an authentic orange crop report indicating a good harvest of fresh fruit, Winthorpe and Valentine understood that stockpiled frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) would be less necessary and so less valued (priced lower) once traders discovered the report. On the other hand, the Duke brothers believed that the fresh orange harvest would be less successful, necessitating greater use of stockpiled FCOJ in orange products in the coming year, driving the price up. By capitalizing on this knowledge (and the Duke Brothers' missteps), the protagonists are able to profit off of the significant contract price difference between the high and low of the day (before and after the crop report is announced).

Many have wondered how they were able to sell at high prices FCOJ commodities they did not yet own or able to make any money off purchasing back the commodities at a low price (i.e. it is unclear to some how they would realize an actual cash profit from them.) The explanation lies in the nature of the futures market.

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