Trading Places - how/help!

[phillymc]

Everytime me and the girlfriend watch this we can never work out how Louis and Valentine skank the Duke Brothers...we're usually a bit bladdered when we watch it and try and work it out for about 30 seconds before our heads are done in , give up and get back to the meths and absinth chasers...
Could someone please explain these (probably) easy steps to making a fortune and bringing a major financial house to it's knees...
:confused:
Apologies for being thick but insider trading isn't my forte)
What a top film by the way...

[MK20]

They stole the plantation report and gave the Dukes one that said the exact opposite of what the real one did. Therefore the Dukes bought shares when their price was high thinking the price would go up when actually it dropped and they couldnt sell them for enough to cover the money theyd spent buying them. Therefore they lost all their money.

[phillymc]

I seeeeee... the Dukes thought the crop was going to be really bad for Oranges so they started buying the stock at any price thinking Oranges value would go up again due to lack of oranges following the report.
When Valentine and Louis scream out as everyones trying to buy oranges (following the Dukes strategy) were they selling? This would explain why everyone wanted to go to them to get hold of stock ..
Then I take it the report says the oranges are going to be fine so everyone wants to flog their stock quick cause its not going to be worth anything. Valentine then buys up at the cheap price and makes a profit from the high price they sold and the low price they bought them back at...
It gets quite complicated...
I'll never make it as a broker.
Cheers mate

ps I did understand the principal of stealing the report.. just the buying and selling bit wrecked my head;)