QUESTION = In Trading Places (1983, Akroyd/Murphy) how does the scheme at the end of the movie work? Why would buying a lot of OJ at a high price ruin the Duke Brothers? GENERATION = The Dukes are *massively* underpowered. Their total debt is a massive fraction of the sum of the stock price of the company they own. If they lose, their stock is going to pay off at least some of their debt, but it's not going to be a massive amount. If the price of the stock drops by $10, that's $5 of debt they're probably making. But because they're underpowered, they can't possibly afford to lose all that money in the stock market. So, they do their best to get cheap, high-volume OJ at a discount. Then, when the price drops, they buy all the OJ at that discount at a discount even further down the line to make up for the money they lost. That way, even though they're losing money, they're still making money in the stock market, and they're making money because they're still at a *huge* advantage. The Dukes are so sure that the price of OJ will return to a level they can afford, that they're willing to buy huge amounts of stock at that discount just in case. RETRIEVAL #0 = Trading Places---to return Valentine to the streets. Valentine overhears the conversation, and seeks out Winthorpe, who attempts suicide by overdosing on pills. Valentine, Ophelia and Winthorpe's butler Coleman nurse him back to health and inform him of the Dukes' experiment. On television, they learn that Clarence Beeks is transporting a secret USDA report on orange crop forecasts. Winthorpe and Valentine recall large payments made to Beeks by the Dukes and realize that the Dukes plan to obtain the report to corner the market on frozen orange juice. On New Year's Eve, the four board Beeks' Philadelphia-bound train, intending to switch the original report with a forgery that predicts low orange crop yields. Beeks uncovers their scheme and attempts to kill them, but he is knocked unconscious by a gorilla being transported on the train. The four disguise Beeks with a gorilla costume and cage him with the real gorilla. After delivering the forged report to the Dukes in Beeks' place, Valentine and Winthorpe travel to New York City with Coleman's and Ophelia's life savings to carry out their part of the plan. On the commodities trading floor, the Dukes commit all their holdings to buying frozen concentrated orange-juice futures contracts; other traders follow their lead, inflating the price. Meanwhile, Valentine and Winthorpe sell futures heavily at the inflated price. Following the broadcast of the actual crop report RETRIEVAL #1 = Shade (film)---use the deck against the Dean. In the final hand, Vernon mucks a card and deals the hand. He deals the Dean two pair, Kings and Queens (with one King in the hole), and himself a pair of Jacks with a 7 in the hole for the Dean to see. The Dean goes all in, and when Vernon is $50,000 short Charlie and Tiffany make up the shortfall so he can call the bet. Before the cards are turned up, Scarne arrives at the hotel and Marlo enters the room. Identifying the three as the team who conned Larry, Malini's muscle pull their guns and Tiffany pulls hers, then Scarne enters with his gun drawn. The Dean insists that the hand be completed and Vernon swaps out his hole card 7 for a third Jack, which would beat the two pair he'd dealt the Dean. The room is stunned when the Dean turns up a third Queen to take the hand and a $2,000,000 pot. Malini tells the three they can leave but advises them to stay out of the Los Angeles rackets. Charlie splits up the partnership with Vernon and, after Marlo's revelation that he was tipped off by Tiffany about shaking down Larry, with her as well. As Vernon sits alone in a diner, The Dean, Eve and Scarne enter, revealing the game was all an elaborate setup RETRIEVAL #2 = Flodders in America---through the streets of Manhattan, resulting in the muggers crashing into the New York Stock Exchange, after which the Flodder siblings are arrested. However, when finding the business card of Geoffrey, the police immediately release them, after which the Flodders are met by Geoffrey who asks whether he can take daughter Kees out for the night, which Johnny only allows when Geoffrey pays him $5000. Although daughter Kees is not enthusiastic about Geoffrey, one of his advisers fears the worst and does research on the Flodder family. Soon it becomes clear to the viewer that Geoffrey's father is in fact the president of the United States. Not wanting his son to be involved with a white trash girl, the president decides to go the nightclub incognito, to talk daughter Kees out of the affair. Just as the president arrives and tries to talk to daughter Kees in her dressing room, the situation escalates because Rosenbaum catches his wife and Johnny having sex in the stockroom, after which Rosenbaum gets infuriated and tries to attack Johnny with a shotgun. By the time the police arrive, Ma Flodder has already stopped Rosenbaum by putting his head underwater. However, when Ma spits out her cigar it accidentally flies into the frying pan, creating a fire which lights the gasoline in the water tank. The water tank is launched into the air and flies RETRIEVAL #3 = Boiler Room (film)---poorly, only to have Seth persuade him to buy more worthless shares. The stock eventually tanks, costing Harry his savings and his family. Feeling guilty for scamming Harry, Seth resolves to shut the firm down. Marty then disowns him, accusing him of destroying peoples' lives. Seth investigates further, discovering that the firm's founders are already preparing to abandon J.T. Marlin, destroy the records, and cut ties with their employees to re-brand and start their scheme under a new name, leaving their victims to face a lengthy legal battle without much hope of recovering their money. Seth shows up at his father's office and tearfully explains that he shut down his casino and went along with a highly criminal line of work that he thought was legal to gain his family's approval. He then requests that his father help him on an IPO scheme to rob the firm of their money and bring them down, hoping that his actions, while illegal, will recover enough money to help J.T. Marlin's victims. Although Marty initially refuses due to the risk of losing his judgeship, he calls Seth the next day, reconciling with him and offering to help with the scheme. Seth is eventually arrested by the FBI for the violation of 26 SEC and NASD regulations, and is brought into their custody along with his father, as the bureau had discovered their IP RETRIEVAL #4 = Richie Rich (film)---dead, Van Dough assumes leadership of the Rich corporation, and proceeds to cut the many charitable contributions the Rich family were known for. This includes closing the recently reopened United Tool factory, which the parents of the sandlot kids relied upon for their income. This angers Richie, and so with the encouragement and assistance of Cadbury, he proceeds to the company headquarters and, as a living Rich family member, assumes the leadership position. Van Dough, however, sees this as a minor setback: as Richie is still underage, his ability to run the business is limited by the powers given to him by someone who was able to give it to him – namely, Cadbury. Cadbury is framed for the Rich family's apparent murder when bomb parts are found in his room, and most of the Rich family's other loyal servants are fired "en masse" by Van Dough's edict. Van Dough plots to have Cadbury murdered in jail and make it look like a suicide. With Professor Keenbean eavesdropping on their conversation, he manages to sneak Richie out and enact a successful plan to help Cadbury escape from prison just as a hulking hitman arrives to murder Cadbury; though bruised, Cadbury is able to knock out the hitman. Cadbury and Richie then make their way to Gloria's house, where Dianne tends to Cadbury, and RETRIEVAL #5 = The Wheel of Fortune (novel)---John's son . Harry's jealousy stems from the fact Harry felt that his father should have inherited Oxmoon instead of Ginevra and Kester. Kester's relationship with Thomas becomes more heated and violent when he marries Anna, a German Jew on the run from Hitler's Nazi regime. With the Oxmoon estate in arrears thanks to Kester's mismanagement, John and Thomas are forced to seize control of Oxmoon's management from Kester and Anna. Naturally, Kester vows vengeance to retake back Oxmoon, and on Thomas for having publicly humiliated him and insulted his wife. Section::::Synopsis.:Part 5: Harry (1939–1952). Harry is seen as the perfect boy - handsome, clever and tough - but we learn he is a lost soul, wanting to follow music and desperate for his father's approval. After Bronwen leaves her beloved John to go to Canada to escape their socially-derided relationship, John resumes his London life with Constance and Harry silently melts down at boarding school. John's absence from Wales gives young master of the castle Kester more room to live an idyllic life at Oxmoon, which infuriates Harry. He finds some solace in a local, distant relative, with whom he has nothing in common but sexual attraction. They later marry and have four mostly accidental children who cause Harry more trouble than joy. Desperately unhappy, RETRIEVAL #6 = Death of a Scoundrel---is turned. Kelly's estranged husband Chuck (Bob Morgan) pursues and shoots Sabourin in the street, but Sabourin escapes by pushing Chuck into the path of an oncoming car. On a tip from the doctor who removes the bullet, Sabourin invests in a company that manufactures the drug penicillin. He fraudulently uses a $20,000 cashier's check from inside the stolen wallet to purchase the stock. Encountering the wealthy Mrs. Ryan (Zsa Zsa Gabor), widow of a prominent businessman, Sabourin earns a considerable sum of money for her as well by tipping her to the stock. Mrs. Ryan writes Sabourin a $20,000 loan, which he uses to cover his forged check from Wilson. His stockbroker, O'Hara (John Hoyt), spots the fraud but helps Sabourin in exchange for a share in his profit. Sabourin uses a financial statement he found in Wilson's wallet to blackmail Wilson into selling him his oil company. Sabourin orchestrates a fake oil strike to gain profit, but his investors get the last laugh when oil is really found on the property and the stock soars to $30 a share. Sabourin, O'Hara, Miss Kelly and Sabourin's lawyer Bauman (Werner Klemperer) become successful by buying struggling companies, manipulating the price