[video] Hoax (or just overly candid!) Stock Trader on BBC

[flyinghaggis]

 

It's probably a joke but it does make you wonder exactly how far from the truth it is

 

 

The 'trader' at the centre of a controversial interview, in which he claimed the City just 'loves' a economic disaster, was today accused of being a hoaxer.

 

Twitter users took to the social networking site to 'out' the City trader as an imposter and claimed he was a member of a group of hoaxers, hours after an astonishing interview on the BBC.

 

Interviewers were left open-mouthed as Alessio Rastani admitted that traders 'don't really care that much' about the prospect of an economic collapse.

 

He astonished BBC viewers yesterday by describing his hopes of profiting from a recession, adding: 'The governments don't rule the world - Goldman Sachs rules the world.'

 

The self-styled 'independent trader' also claimed he had been 'dreaming of this moment for three years', as the global economy faces continuing uncertainty.

 

However sceptics took to Twitter today to claim Mr Rastani was merely impersonating a city trader and was even a member of political hoaxers the Yes Men.

 

One user said: 'It doesn't matter if it was Alessio Rastani or The Yes Men. What he said reflects how traders really think.'

 

In an interview on BBC News, Mr Rastani predicted, 'The market is toast.'

 

But when presenter Martine Croxall asked him what the solution was, he admitted: 'For most traders, we don't really care that much how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation.

 

'Our job is to make money from it.'

 

He added: 'I have a confession - I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession, I dream of another moment like this.'

 

His comments came on a day of turmoil in the stock market, with major indices going up and down throughout the day.

 

Shocked Ms Croxall replied that 'jaws have just collectively dropped' at the trader's comments.

 

'We appreciate your candour,' she added, 'however, it doesn't help the rest of us, does it?'

 

But Mr Rastani insisted that 'anybody' can profit from a catastrophic crash with the right 'hedging strategies', and drew parallels with the 1930s Depression.

 

He concluded: 'The economic crisis is like a cancer. If you just wait and wait, thinking this is going to go away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late.'

 

The presenters were almost dumbstruck at the end of the interview, as Ms Croxall's co-host asked her, 'Do you dream about the economy at night?'

 

'I try not to,' she replied. 'Nightmare.'

 

Mr Rastani's outburst drew a mixed reaction from viewers.

 

His Facebook page was flooded with people asking for investment advice, but not all internet users were so complimentary.

 

One Twitter user described Mr Rastani as 'jaw-droppingly amoral', while trader Jack Gavigan wrote: 'If Alessio Rastani is such a great trader, why does he spend time teaching people instead of, y'know, actually trading?'

 

Mr Rastani's website, LeadingTrader.com, is full of pictures of his speaking engagements, but provides little information about his own trading experience.

 

News | Mail Online...

 

TheSun Website

TV viewers were left stunned last night after a self-styled trader claimed bankers were "dreaming of another recession" so they can make more money.

 

BBC 24 newsreaders sat "open-mouthed" in amazement at Alessio Rastani's outburst — but today there were claims the outrageous interviewee was a hoaxer who managed to dupe the news channel.

 

Rastani said traders "don't really care that much" about the prospect of an economic collapse and told of his hopes of profiting from the recession, adding: "The governments don't rule the world - Goldman Sachs rules the world."

 

During the shocking interview, he said: "The market is toast. For most traders, we don't really care that much how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation

 

"Our job is to make money from it.

 

"I have a confession - I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession, I dream of another moment like this."

 

But Rastani's credibility came under question today as bloggers claimed he is a member of a group called the Yes Men, who pose as fake interviewees for the media.

 

Doubts about his alleged success as a trader were also raised as it was pointed out on Twitter that he is not currently employed by a bank or fund manager.

 

Rastani described himself as an "experienced stock market and forex trader and professional speaker". His website is dedicated to his public speaking.

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Rastani appeared on the channel as stock markets worldwide were hit by another day of turmoil.

 

A shocked BBC presenter told him "jaws have just collectively dropped" after his scandalous words.

 

She added: "We appreciate your candour, however, it doesn't help the rest of us, does it?"

 

Rastani replied that "anybody" can profit from a recession if they use the correct strategies.

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3839173/Traders-shock-BBC-outburst....

[eejit]

wow, thanks for posting.

[jinnantonnixx]

He's probably just too honest for his own good.

 

Soros (a currency trader) made $ONE BILLION PROFIT (!!!!!!) betting against Sterling - all in a big gamble.

 

Black Wednesday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[MK-2]

He's probably just too honest for his own good.

 

I think the word you're looking for is "dick"

 

Too honest for his own good? So him saying he prays for another downturn is just being candid?

So me saying I pray for another holocaust because I could profit from it would be seen as just candid honesty? (yes thats right, I used the holocaust as a rather extreme example!)

 

This man profitted from an event that is hitting millions hard. Rather than showing some humility and compassion he thinks "yeah bring it on, let thousands of OAPs and poverty stricken families die, I want another house"

[jinnantonnixx]

The only thing they're interested in making money.

 

They look after number one - and number one isn't you or me.

 

So, yes, he had a brief flash of honesty, let his guard down and said what he thinks. Unless of course, it really was a hoax.

[flyinghaggis]

Some more updates from the BBC website on his comments :-

 

BBC News - Maverick trader: Was what he said actually right?

 

The more I read the more I suspect he was just saying it for attention/fun or perhaps even personal gain. Bearing in mind that if he's bought stocks on the expectation that Euro will fail it's in his interest to promtote the idea that it will happen!

 

Personally I don't think we'll see the end of the Euro any time soon. For whatever reason there seems to be a huge amount of support for it amongst the powers that be. In fact just this minute Germany have voted to back another "bail-out" package for Greece!

[localzuk]

It doesn't matter if he was a lowly day trader living in a semi, or the CEO of Goldman Sachs. What he said was pretty much right.

 

The people working in the money markets don't care about the economy - they care about making money and living the lifestyle. If a recession will help them do this, they'll want a recession.

 

Anyone who thinks differently is naive to say the least!

[flyinghaggis]

Lol, ITV put him back on again!

 

Alessio Rastani: "David Cameron and Barack Obama Are 'Slaves To The Capitalist Gang Bang' "

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4mGtec6qUc&feature=player_embedded

Edited October 3, 2011 by flyinghaggis

[Flatpackhamster]

I think the word you're looking for is "dick"

 

Too honest for his own good? So him saying he prays for another downturn is just being candid?

So me saying I pray for another holocaust because I could profit from it would be seen as just candid honesty? (yes thats right, I used the holocaust as a rather extreme example!)

 

This man profitted from an event that is hitting millions hard. Rather than showing some humility and compassion he thinks "yeah bring it on, let thousands of OAPs and poverty stricken families die, I want another house"

 

Do you feel guilty every time you order a piece of electronic equipment? People are dying from the pollutants put in to the groundwater in China when they extract the rare earths using an acid leaching process. When your old computers are disposed of under the EU's recycling directives, they're taken to India and dumped on a beach. There, small children are used to collect the circuitboards and melt them over open crucibles to extract the metals. The circuitboards are coated in flame-retardant chemicals which are toxic and which poison the children - facial lesions, breathing difficulties, skeletal deformities.

 

The distance that separates your purchasing decision from the consequences of that decision affects how much you care. If it was your child being poisoned, you'd act. Since it's someone else's in a foreign country, you don't. The principle is the same.

 

I don't think it's just a matter of 'showing humility and compassion'. This guy didn't cause the recession. He didn't create the conditions for it. But should he be poor because other people are poor, and should his children go without because other children are?

[localzuk]

When your old computers are disposed of under the EU's recycling directives, they're taken to India and dumped on a beach. There, small children are used to collect the circuitboards and melt them over open crucibles to extract the metals. The circuitboards are coated in flame-retardant chemicals which are toxic and which poison the children - facial lesions, breathing difficulties, skeletal deformities.

 

No, that is NOT true. Under EU regulations, that specific thing is illegal.

[MK-2]

Do you feel guilty every time you order a piece of electronic equipment? People are dying from the pollutants put in to the groundwater in China when they extract the rare earths using an acid leaching process. When your old computers are disposed of under the EU's recycling directives, they're taken to India and dumped on a beach. There, small children are used to collect the circuitboards and melt them over open crucibles to extract the metals. The circuitboards are coated in flame-retardant chemicals which are toxic and which poison the children - facial lesions, breathing difficulties, skeletal deformities.

 

The distance that separates your purchasing decision from the consequences of that decision affects how much you care. If it was your child being poisoned, you'd act. Since it's someone else's in a foreign country, you don't. The principle is the same.

 

I don't think it's just a matter of 'showing humility and compassion'. This guy didn't cause the recession. He didn't create the conditions for it. But should he be poor because other people are poor, and should his children go without because other children are?

 

And yet at the same time I'm not going on TV saying "I hope millions of children in India and China die because I'm rich and want a brand spanking new tv in every room of my house." yet he is wishing for an economic downturn which will cause poverty to many across many countries, just so he can get richer.

[Flatpackhamster]

No, that is NOT true. Under EU regulations, that specific thing is illegal.

 

Where does e-waste end up? | Greenpeace International

 

Sorry, but it does happen. The EU's ruling has made it harder to recycle within the EU due to the increased costs of regulation, so it's shipped to third-world nations.

[localzuk]

Where does e-waste end up? | Greenpeace International

 

Sorry, but it does happen. The EU's ruling has made it harder to recycle within the EU due to the increased costs of regulation, so it's shipped to third-world nations.

 

No, you said that it happens under the EU rules, which it doesn't. It happens contrary to the EU rules. I didn't deny it happens, its well known that it happens, but the EU can and does prosecute organisations for doing this.

[Flatpackhamster]

And yet at the same time I'm not going on TV saying "I hope millions of children in India and China die because I'm rich and want a brand spanking new tv in every room of my house." yet he is wishing for an economic downturn which will cause poverty to many across many countries, just so he can get richer.

 

How would showing humility make the misery for those people go away?

 

I'm not saying that he's a nice person, but I am saying that railing at him for not being a nice person is like railing at water for being wet. We all act in ways which affect others but we choose not to think about it.

[Flatpackhamster]

No, you said that it happens under the EU rules, which it doesn't. It happens contrary to the EU rules. I didn't deny it happens, its well known that it happens, but the EU can and does prosecute organisations for doing this.

 

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It happens as a direct result of EU rules.

[localzuk]

How would showing humility make the misery for those people go away?

 

I'm not saying that he's a nice person, but I am saying that railing at him for not being a nice person is like railing at water for being wet. We all act in ways which affect others but we choose not to think about it.

 

Your argument is flawed based on one thing - do you lead your own life in a perfect way? Vegan, don't use any form of electricity or transport? Grow your own food without using any chemicals? Make your own clothes, from cotton you grew yourself?

 

If not, then you are basically saying that where you draw your line in the sand over what is acceptable is better than someone else's. You don't have the right to say that. You can advise and say why it is, but making out that MK-2's opinion about this bloke is flawed because he does something that you see as wrong is itself wrong.

[MK-2]

How would showing humility make the misery for those people go away?

 

I'm not saying that he's a nice person, but I am saying that railing at him for not being a nice person is like railing at water for being wet. We all act in ways which affect others but we choose not to think about it.

 

so if a person in your family was in a car accident and died, and while you are stood there a man walks up to you and begins laughing in your face, thats fine? why have a go at him, he is acting differently, and his laughter wont make the person come back will it.

 

as i said before, if i were to go on tv and say "i really hope we have another holocaust as i could really profit from it" nobody should make a fuss, as it wont bring back those who died and im just being candid.

its common sense and also compassion not to rub peoples noses in the situation they are suffering from and you are prospering from. if you won the lottery would you go up to homeless people and say "haha i have money you have none, haha" which is what, basically, he has done

[Flatpackhamster]

so if a person in your family was in a car accident and died, and while you are stood there a man walks up to you and begins laughing in your face, thats fine? why have a go at him, he is acting differently, and his laughter wont make the person come back will it.

 

as i said before, if i were to go on tv and say "i really hope we have another holocaust as i could really profit from it" nobody should make a fuss, as it wont bring back those who died and im just being candid.

its common sense and also compassion not to rub peoples noses in the situation they are suffering from and you are prospering from. if you won the lottery would you go up to homeless people and say "haha i have money you have none, haha" which is what, basically, he has done

 

Would this guy do it to someone's face? No, and that's exactly the point. It's the distance between his actions and the reason for them that allows him to say that.

[Flatpackhamster]

Your argument is flawed based on one thing - do you lead your own life in a perfect way? Vegan, don't use any form of electricity or transport? Grow your own food without using any chemicals? Make your own clothes, from cotton you grew yourself?

 

If I had been telling him to live more like me, I would agree with you, but I didn't.

 

If not, then you are basically saying that where you draw your line in the sand over what is acceptable is better than someone else's. You don't have the right to say that. You can advise and say why it is, but making out that MK-2's opinion about this bloke is flawed because he does something that you see as wrong is itself wrong.

 

I think MK-2 is expecting a degree of altruism to which none of us can realistically aspire in a globalised economy. As I wrote above, I don't think this guy is a nice person, but I don't agree with the hand-wringing moralising around his behaviour. What he has said is what we all do, every single day, when we sell or scrap computers, when we buy clothes from China, whatever. We're all making money off of the back of someone else's misery.

Edited October 4, 2011 by Flatpackhamster
Rogue Quote.

[MK-2]

I don't agree with the hand-wringing moralising around his behaviour. What he has said is what we all do, every single day, when we sell or scrap computers, when we buy clothes from China, whatever. We're all making money off of the back of someone else's misery.

 

and as i said, we dont all then go on tv, proclaiming we are looking for the next way to make others miserable.

going by what you said, lets say i buy a new tv and get rid of the old one, knowing full well it could go to a country and injure a child. fair enough, i live with that chance. now if the bbc say will you come on our show and tell the people how you hope another child gets killed from the fumes of your tv so you can get another bigger tv, do i?

thats the point im making, yes, he made money from it, countless others did, but they didn't then go on to tv proclaiming they await the next chance to do it.

 

if this is a hoax, again its not very good. it doesn't highlight anything. it would be like a white man going on tv to say he hoped all black babies died at birth....then a few months later saying "ahhhh just kidding i was doing it to highlight baby death rates". the damage has been done in the initial broadcast and the discussion it will evoke (like the one we are having now).

[Flatpackhamster]

and as i said, we dont all then go on tv, proclaiming we are looking for the next way to make others miserable.

going by what you said, lets say i buy a new tv and get rid of the old one, knowing full well it could go to a country and injure a child. fair enough, i live with that chance. now if the bbc say will you come on our show and tell the people how you hope another child gets killed from the fumes of your tv so you can get another bigger tv, do i?

thats the point im making, yes, he made money from it, countless others did, but they didn't then go on to tv proclaiming they await the next chance to do it.

 

A more accurate comparison would be you buying a new TV, and then going on TV and saying that you hope prices of flat-screen TVs are going to fall because then your next one will be cheaper. He hasn't said he hopes anyone dies.

 

if this is a hoax, again its not very good. it doesn't highlight anything. it would be like a white man going on tv to say he hoped all black babies died at birth....then a few months later saying "ahhhh just kidding i was doing it to highlight baby death rates". the damage has been done in the initial broadcast and the discussion it will evoke (like the one we are having now).

 

You've tried to over-emotionalise this by linking his behaviour first to Nazism and now to racism. It's a cheap trick. He's neither a nazi nor a racist, even if he's a twit.

[MK-2]

A more accurate comparison would be you buying a new TV, and then going on TV and saying that you hope prices of flat-screen TVs are going to fall because then your next one will be cheaper. He hasn't said he hopes anyone dies.

You've tried to over-emotionalise this by linking his behaviour first to Nazism and now to racism. It's a cheap trick. He's neither a nazi nor a racist, even if he's a twit.

 

fine, i'll stop linking it to anything.

 

he went on tv...fact

he claimed that he waits for the next recession....fact

the recession will make many thousands of people a lot worse off....fact

he will benefit from said recession.....fact

 

 

and just to use your example of

A more accurate comparison would be you buying a new TV, and then going on TV and saying that you hope prices of flat-screen TVs are going to fall because then your next one will be cheaper. He hasn't said he hopes anyone dies.

the price of a flatscreen going down will not put thousands in poverty and cause people to lose their jobs, etc. he is talking about an event that will affect many millions of people in a bad way.

 

i am not arguing that he and many others benefit from this, i am arguing that he is a dick for going on tv to gloat over the fact.

put simply, two lottery winners go on tv, one says "this will change my life, im so happy", the other says "ha, you can all blow me, i'm rich and you are all poor scum".

which do you look at and think "what a jerk?"

[stevenlong1985]

Okay..... Have anyone seen these Documentary "Collapse" IMDb - Collapse (2009) or Michael Moores "Capitalism: A Love Story" Kapitalismus: Eine Liebesgeschichte (2009) - IMDb or aware about #occupywallstreet Probably not the last one as theres a media blackout about it now, including block a on trending on twitter

[flyinghaggis]

My personal opinion of the guy is that he's saying what he is basically to try and get people's attention for whatever reason. I think the question we NEED to be asking is WHY do we have an economic system that rewards excessive risk and is completely amoral. Never mind throwing around moral judgements about specific individuals. At least he had the nerve to go on TV and tell it like it is. As he said he hopes for another recession/boom as market volitility is the time when the most profit/loss can be made. He's just chasing numbers on a computer screen to try and maximise his profit and minimise loss. No different than any other stocktrader on the planet!

 

The problem is those numbers on the screens represent the savings/pensions of millions of individuals around the world. Currently the FTSE stock market's just pluged 200 points to 4900 as doubts mount over the Greek bailout. Whatever happens the resulting fallout is going to be with us for years. The options being :-

 

a) Bailout Greece - If this happens it's basically tacitly saying that other PIGs countries will also be bailed out. Though "bailout" sounds like a nice word and it would likely stabilise stock markets you have to remember it's ultimately a remit to print more money/debt and very high inflation globally for the next few years will likely be the result.

 

b) Let Greece go Bankrupt - Stocks would collapse and and banks runs would be widespread as fear grips markets and everyone panics over who will be next in line to fall after Greece.

 

Arguably b) is the morally right choice and quickest way to resolve the crisis but the resulting civil unrest could be much worse than a). For what it's worth I think option a) [or somekind of bailout/EU stability fund] is the likely outcome as it's less dangerous and will spread out the debt from the global property bubble over the next decade or so in the form of inflation.

 

Don't get me wrong though. Neither option is pretty......

 

*The above is my opinion drawn from my somewhat basic understanding of economics!

Edited October 4, 2011 by flyinghaggis