# Trading Places (Anyone here stock savvy?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-places-anyone-here-stock-savvy/852005 "2020-04-17T19:58:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-places-anyone-here-stock-savvy/852005/24 "2020-04-20T14:02:36Z")
Disclosure: I haven’t actually seen the movie since it originally came out. I’m running on vague memory and what’s said here. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > My hunch was that the Dukes are the rule, not the exception. They’ve been around a long time, evidenced by the fact that a Duke “founded” the exchange or whatever that quote was when their assets were seized. They’re known, rich. As you say, they’re rich and known. The Duke boys - I just have to say it that way - will be given every possible opportunity to pay up and not lose their status. [quote] My question was more about Louis/Billy Ray: they’re known because they represented the Dukes. But they’re off on their own here. This is their money, so their credit (not the Dukes’) is at issue. Of course they could have saved up but they’re pretty small potatoes…? They clearly are. And their plays are likely small potatoes overall. First, they’d need to have a relationship with a B/D to even BE on the floor making trades. Second, those guys on the floor are worker bees. If they wanted to really be in play they’d be somewhere else calling people on the floor to make those deals. But movie’s gotta movie. Anyway, looks like at most they had what, $150,000 to spend? If they sold those futures at $1.42 and bought them at 29 cents later then the most they could have made is…about $580,000. If they DID get someone to float them - for whatever reason - the sky’s the limit. But I don’t think we saw anyone agree to do so. Especially since - an unmentioned part - what they did is so illegal everyone involved should be in jail. The Duke boys technically didn’t break the law at that point. However, criminal conspiracy to defraud an entire exchange? That’s worth some time in the hoosegow right there. Valentine and Ophelia might not have known it but I guarantee you Winthorpe knew it. > [@](#): > > Lots of money launderers would like to show up at the stock market with stacks of cash, I imagine. Yes, they do. I get people wandering in every year just wanting to ‘ask’ about how to invest all this cash they ‘found’ or ‘inherited’ and how they don’t trust banks for whatever reason. > [@](#): > > The big, powerful Duke Brothers have one guy in that pit. These guys (without a company?) are both in the pit. Dramatic license again? Absolutely. Neither of them should be there. Winthorpe is an executive trader. He’s not licensed for that and shouldn’t know how to do it unless he started there. As stated up there, he should be calling one of those guys who’s employed by whatever B/D brought them on board to make those moves. > [@](#): > > I did think it was interesting that they knew how many millions the Dukes owed. 7 jillion transactions being screamed across the floor…someone higher up is tallying as we go? With today’s technology, yes…but back then? Yeah…no. No way it happens that quickly. Even today most stock trades settle in two days. Used to be three two years ago - I think, I forget the exact time of the change - and decades ago it was 10 or 14 days. Now for options it’s usually next day close-of-business but there are exceptions. Now, in terms of getting all that tallied? Even today with modern technology things get out of balance and trades that were executed can’t be reconciled and some equities are put on hold until things can be sorted out. I wasn’t active way back when - I was 16 in 1983 - but I can’t imagine it was anything but orders of magnitude worse then. > [@](#): > > If I understood it right, they sold at 1.42, then bought at less. The final price listed was .29 and that represents the lowest price paid, right? So as the price fell they bought at some amount between the two, like .55 or .67? If they bought at .29, they’d get almost 5x their investment but if they spent more, it would have been a less dramatic amount. Compared to what the Duke Brothers lost, though ?😕 As I said up there, the most they could have made was about half-a-million dollars in profit. But the Duke boys could have lost far more. If nothing else, because others would have taken then bet against the Duke boys - players much larger than Ackroyd/Murphy - and would have stood to make far more money. Imagine: the MOST the Duke boys could have lost per contract was $1.42. So if they’re truly wealthy then they could have sold a million contracts and lost a maximum of $1.42MM. If they had 10 million contracts they could lose $14.2MM. That’s a big chunk of change - about $36MM in adjusted dollars - but I can’t imagine it would bankrupt the Duke boys. But, as I said above, movie’s gotta movie. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-places-anyone-here-stock-savvy/852005)._