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"There is the old story about the market craze in sardine trading when the sardines disappeared from their traditional waters in Monterey, California. The commo
by vincefutr23 14y ago
"There is the old story about the market craze in sardine trading when the sardines disappeared from their traditional waters in Monterey, California. The commodity traders bid them up and the price of a can of sardines soared. One day a buyer decided to treat himself to an expensive meal and actually opened a can and started eating. He immediately became ill and told the seller the sardines were no good. The seller said, "You don't understand. These are not eating sardines, they are trading sardines."
- jwallaceparker 14y agoI thought you were going to tell the even older story about the early days of the Monterey sardine markets. The sardine report would be released every Friday morning at the docks. The sardine traders would employ runners to physically run the reports back to the market. The traders who employed the fastest runners were naturally the most successful. There was one runner nicknamed Slippery Jimmy not only for his elusive speed but also as a fish reference. Years later Jimmy started one of Monterey's first sporting goods stores. He called it Slippery Shoes. Sadly, the company went bankrupt.