"Trading Sardines"

[Bitter Ender]

"TRADING SARDINES"

It comes from a story
about a man who joined a friend down at the docks.
They
were working in a fish market. Their job was to
"trade" fish.

All day long the price would change
dramatically, the action was fast and furious.
Buying and
selling, selling, buying, etc. Making and losing large
sums of money.

Finally the day ended. The man
was hungry so he opened one of the fish
containers
he had been trading and took a bite. "Hey", he
exclaimed, "these fish are rotten!".

"Those aren't
eating sardines", his friend explained, "they are
TRADING sardines".

[mmdough]

Sounds like Gresham's Law.

[Exo]

Sounds like Gresham's Law.

Haha, I was just about to say this

[deepceleron]

Sounds more like trading in pork bellies futures contracts, you can make or loose money trading them, but if you keep them, you get pork bellies.

[Cyclone]

I think this was a social commentary on bitcoins, perhaps? Just given the context, it seems like it.