I always see this in movies during a stock market scene.... but what is really going on??????

Question

I just seen the movie "What Happens In Vegas" and the girl who is an associate with stocks I suppose. Anyways, its always people yelling and waving a paper and all. It doesnt make sense to me and i have no idea whats going on. Could someone explain. Ive seen this in many other movies, such as Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen having the same job. I have an educated idea about the stock and investments, but the yelling with a paper.... ummmm yeah...???

Answer 1

The way it USED to work, each buyer or seller (floor traders) would shout out what he/she had to offer.  They made deals on the spot, filling out their order slips.  So if I had 1000 shares to sell at $5.00, I might yell out "1000 at 5", and if you were willing to buy, you'd shout out how many you'd take.  Each trading house used a different uniform, to easily tell them apart, which is

Now, however, most trading floors are entirely electronic, all offers to buy or sell are matched electronically with corresponding offers.  But that's not very exciting to watch now, is it?

Answer 2

Sounds like you're describing "in person" commodities trading.  Such high-energy scenes are typical of trading (buying and selling) stuff like crude oil futures, precious metals like gold, and even certain agricultural crops.  

This work can be even more intensive and high-stakes than "day trading" on the stock market (short-term stock trades), which is already quite action-packed.  Timing is everythign.  

But rather than doing business "virtually," that is via remote over the Internet, a commodities trading floor is a physical place -- such as the New York Mercantile Exchange -- where brokers and customers come together and negotiate deals.  This is why movies often show this happening -- it can be quite intense at times.

Practically anybody can play this commodities trading game (online), but my one editorial comment is that making money via speculation on the future price of something can be very tricky, to say the least, and even so-called experts lose money at it ... such speculation is also helping to drive up commodity food and oil prices.  Is that a good thing?