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Comment by allenrb | Hacker News Reader

I’ve worked in trading for some time now (on the tech nerd side) and can still remember my jaw dropping when I learned that FCOJ is actually traded and wasn’t made up for the movie.

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My father was a trader on the floor of the CME in Chicago for a short bit (mid to late 90s), and Trading Places was provided as required reading before he taught me how to trade commodities. Great film. I have the VHS copy somewhere for sentimental reasons.

Why you can’t trade onions futures is also a fun read, for similar reasons (“The Great Onion Corner”).

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450769853/the-great-onion-cor...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act

There's a good chance I knew your father if he was active between 89' and 97'. Leased and eventually bought a seat and cleared through RJO.

Mostly S&P 500, Pound Sterling and Live Cattle.

And thanks for those links!

as the last of the short orders were filed Kosuga leaned over to Siegel and whispered, "now we'll really give em something to cry about", and the rest is history

When I was in law school I took a class on securities regulation taught by Joel Seligman, and I remember looking at his multi-volume treatise which included a letter Gerald Ford sent him reminiscing about the Onion Futures Act.

The entire concept of FCOJ grosses me out after I learned they would sometimes ship it north inside of the same tanker trucks they would use to ship chemicals down south. I hope this is regulated now.

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