Trading Places (1983) - 3 questions

Question: How much did Louis & Valentine make after they scored at the stock exchange?

Answer: Without knowing precisely how many stocks Winthorp and Valentine sold at the beginning, there is no way to get an exact figure. But we can make some educated guesses. Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice is sold in contracts, with each contract containing 15,000 pounds. By the end of the day, Winthorp and Valentine were making at least an 84 cent profit on each pound, and $12,600 on each contract. If they sold 20,000 contracts, their profit would be $252 million. Considering the Duke's lost $394 million, that estimate seems to fit (and is likely even a little low).

Question: Does the watch Winthorpe wants to sell really exist or is it a made up brand? There seems to be no information about it on the net.

Answer: It's a made-up brand, named after La Rochefoucauld, a 15th century French writer.

Question: Can someone please explain to me how Randolph and Mortimer get screwed at the end? I'm not good with the stock market...

Answer: Mortimer and Randolph pay Beeks to bring to them the crop report (oranges) before it goes public. Akroyd, Murphy, Curtis and the butler scheme to get the crop report, before the brothers see it. Now that the 3 partners have the true results of the upcoming crops, before it becomes public, they buy as many shares as they can, which starts to create a frenzy, only to start selling off all their shares at a market high price. Mortimer and Randolph tell their 'floor guy' to "buy, buy, buy", (remember they have a fake crop report). Once the brothers buy many shares at the high price, assuming that they're cornering the market, an announcement is made public on the news about the real crop results for the coming harvest, then they realize too late, that their shares are quickly dropping in price and they yell for their 'floor guy' to "sell, sell, sell". By that time already the bell rings and the machines are turned off, and the brothers start yelling, "Turn those machines back on...." Just to add slightly, the fake crop report that the Dukes have suggest that the orange crop will be poor. That means that the contracts that their floor guy is buying will only go higher once that bad report comes out. However, when the report indicates that the orange crop will be plentiful, the demand for FCOJ futures decreases, causing the price the drop. So the Dukes 'bought high' and 'sold low', which is the absolutely worst thing you can do. Akroyd/Murphy/Curtis 'sold high' and then 'bought low', which netted them a significant profit on the transaction.