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* BestKnownForTheFanservice: We can thank ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'' for helping this be remembered as the film where Jamie Lee Curtis flashes her breasts on screen for the first time.
* CompleteMonster: Clarence Beeks. [[EvenEvilHasStandards At least the Dukes were disturbed by how badly Louis was broken by them.]] Beeks has absolutely no issues with destroying Winthorpe's life (to the point of ''murder''), being antagonistic to everyone throughout the movie.
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Winthorpe saying "It's kill or be killed" and "Nothing you've seen in your life can prepare you for the unbridled carnage you're about to witness" as he and Billy enter the World Trade Center for the climax.
* GeniusBonus: The music theme of ''Trading Places'' is the Overture to ''The Marriage of Figaro''. The WolfgangAmadeusMozart opera is about a servant who outwits his master. Also, the movie's title has a double meaning. It not only refers to the main plot in which two men are forced to switch lives, but also to the climax, which plays out at the New York Mercantile Exchange: a trading place.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Often re-aired in Italy during the Christmas Holidays because of its - although vague - Christmas theme... [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar despite the Precision F Strike and Fan Service tropes listed in the main page.]]
* JerkassWoobie: Winthorpe in the latter part of the film. [[ThrowTheDogABone He gets]] [[CharacterDevelopment better]].
* MagnificentBastard: The Duke Brothers, [[spoiler: until they get beat at their own game.]]
* OlderThanTheyThink: The premise of ''Trading Places'', where two wealthy businessmen bet over whether heredity or environment makes a gentleman, and proving it by taking a bum off the street and making him sophisticated, was previously tackled in Film/TheThreeStooges short "Hoi Polloi".
** And funnily enough, nature rather than nurture wins out in that one.
** Older than THAT, even. The story bears strong similarities to the Book of Job (God and the Devil make a bet about whether Job will stay faithful when God ruins his life in every conceivable way), right down to them just doing it because they were bored. Job is probably the inspiration for all stories of this type, come to think of it.
* [[RealLifeWritesThePlot The Plot Writes Real Life]]: In 2010, the "Eddie Murphy Rule" was proposed to prevent commodities traders from using nonpublic information, such as the [[spoiler: Department of Agriculture crop report depicted in the film]], to corner the market in the same way as shown in the movie.
* ValuesDissonance: Dan Akroyd in blackface is PlayedForLaughs for how ridiculous the disguise is, but they still probably couldn't get away with it today.
* ValuesResonance: The themes of how wealth, or the lack of it, affect the character of people, and of course the cautionary tale of people (attempting) to ruin lives to turn a profit probably make the movie a bit more poignant in the wake of the Recession. Also SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.
* VindicatedByCable: The movie was a box office hit, but might have faded into obscurity, if not for constant replaying on cable around Christmas-time, even though the movie is not inherently a "Christmas movie."

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