The Chicago Board of Trade is a mystifying place: an arena of bodies clad in multicolor jackets screaming at each other and gesticulating rapid-fire while rainbows of ascending and descending numbers flash on electronic screens overhead. There is an aura of an out-of-control circus. Amidst this madness, fortunes are made and lost in an instant.

For those with little to no knowledge of the financial world, understanding the complicated hustle bustle and its movers and shakers can be downright confusing. Luckily, a new film opening Jan. 15 at the Gene Siskel Film Center is an insightful guide.

Director James Allen Smith’s documentary Floored ventures deep into the pits to spotlight current and former traders, brokers and clerks who live and breathe trading. They’re a motley crew mauled by bear markets and buoyed by bull ones. Their capitalist battle scars are accentuated with bright egos, expensive suits, big cigars, flashy cars, golf outings and more.

The individuals — ranging from a boisterous, tanned, Hummer-driving, rich big-game hunter to a spindly, divorced father who clings to the profession that led to the loss of his finances and family — relate lives inflated and deflated by market fluctuations and non-stop, high-stakes risk. Despite the ups and downs, though, they hold steadfast to the addictive thrills that their jobs bring.

But what happens if it all disappears?

Through these personal stories, Smith also weaves a portrait of the Chicago Board of Trade itself — and it’s one marked by steep, sharp decline.

In 1997, 10,000 traders worked the floor. Ten years later, only 10 percent remained. Where did they go?

For many, they escaped the manic action for the soft glow of the computer screen. Specially designed software that made trading faster and more efficient became the norm over the past decade. The development benefited younger, more computer savvy traders. Older traders accustomed to the physicality of the floor were left lost out in the cold and, for some, out of a job. Contrasting interviews with bright-eyed computer programmers behind the advancements and traders who stubbornly fight the inevitable forward push of modernization is illuminating, revealing a disconnect between generations.

But Floored could have gone much further, particularly in explaining the intricacies of the world it documents.

The film brushes through basic, essential information on trading, futures markets and other complexities quickly at the outset, perhaps presupposing that audiences already have a handle on them. Viewers who don’t may find themselves lost. Interviews with business news personalities Jon and Pete Najarian and Rick Santelli further the inside baseball feel.

Luckily, strong human drama overpowers any lack of financial definitions and details, making Floored a film you don’t need an MBA to understand and enjoy.

Director James Allen Smith and producers Joe Gibbons and Steve Prosniewski will be at the Siskel Center for select screenings January 15-18. Visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org for details.