Trading Places and Planet Money

Trading Places is a really fun movie made in 1983 starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis. I loved it when I first saw it almost 30 (!) years ago and still liked it after just recently watching it. Here's the thing... I didn't understand what happened on the trading floor at the end of the movie. Sure, I get that the good guys got rich and the bad guys got broke, but the actual mechanism of that escaped me.

Planet Money is an NPR podcast dealing with economics. They've got a staff of really sharp 20-somethings who present economic concepts and issues in an easy to understand way. The question was asked of them, "What actually happens at the end of Trading Places" and they were all too happy to answer it. They talked to commodity traders, got the background, and explained each step of the scheme. It was brilliant.

Here's a link to their blog entry where they explain it in words. On that page are links to their podcast and some other related things. If you're a podcast listener try out Planet Money.