Unwittingly in honor of the supposed “Black Monday” we’re supposed to have today (though is seems the DOW is already recovering…), I watched Trading Places today out of sheer boredom/procrastination. It occurred to me that I still have no idea what the fuck happens during the climax of the movie on the stock exchange floor. So I looked it up and, lo, apparently I’m not the only who didn’t have a clue. Lucky for us, we have the internet to explain things for us. It’s actually pretty ridiculously interesting and all very much real-world economics—no hollywood crap.