Anyone notice that Alessio Rastani is an anagram of 'ass realisation'?

No doubt he will be labelled 'The First Politician, To Tell The Truth'.

I still can't tell if it's a hoax!

The fact that such immoral behaviour by traders and bankers can't be distinguished from satire kind of reveals what a fucked-up situation this bankrupt world is - both in a financial and moral sense.

I don't see why this would be a hoax.

He didn't say anything that most of us haven't known for years.

At worst, this is a hoax, and best, it shows the fallacy of 24 hour news 'experts' (http://twitter.com/#!/peston). An 'independent' trader?! Come on, use your minds please people. Anyone who's ever traded a stock can come on the BBC and claim to be an expert, it seems.

What's so depressing for those of us who actually work in Funds is that Guardian readers (and journalists) have been just as quick to believe him as the Daily Mail. I guess it doesn't matter about small matters like who you're actually listening to as long as they confirm your worst fears and stereotypes, eh?

Ok this is quite interesting. The Metro, The guardian and forbes in the last hour have all posted articles regarding this shit idea to save the repuation of the BBC this IS A nasty OBVIOUS cover up!!!

PEOPLE WATCH OUT NOW. We ARE being lied to and the whole idea of this trader being part of a hoax team is the worst cover up I have ever witnessed..

First of all he only spoke the truth. The financial institutions DO rule the world. And there are many people who profit of the collapse of economy.

Secondly HE LOOKS NOTHING like this other guy the fake corrupt news papers are trying to frame him as.

John Plunkett and Tara Conlan you should both be slapped in the face for being so easily manipulated by this news paper you work for. You are spreading lies.

Shame on you both.

Everyone start watching Films like Zeitgeist 1, 2, and three they are all free to watch on youtube and they talk in depth about the lies we are told every day about the financial institutions. They also talk about how you and your family can survive this global economy collapse.

Peston Robert Peston

We spoke to the trader again this morning, & as far as we can tell he is a genuine independent trader, not a member of YesMen

1 hour ago

Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men looks a bit like this trader but they are not the same person, as you can see if you google image search him.

But if no-one can tell the difference between a real trader and pranksters who take the ideology of free markets to the extreme in order to make a political point, then that's pretty bad news for satire and for the global economy.

http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&sugexp=pfwc&cp=10&gs_id=12&xhr=t&q=andy+bichlbaum&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1200&bih=548&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Alias arises not.

northern983, you have 3 years of evidence against the finance and banking sector that they are in it for themselves and the begging bowl is still being proffered and filled on demand by their government and central bank mates.

Normal people cannot understand how anyone or anything can justify constant bail outs without being required to learn, change, payback or solve the problem.

This bloke to me is a legitimate poster boy for what you say you do as a living and if you would like to explain to me how shorting banks to make them collapse or speculate on food or energy to the suffering of billions is in Mankind's best interests you can challenge my preconceptions happily.

What's so depressing for those of us who actually work in Funds is that Guardian readers (and journalists) have been just as quick to believe him as the Daily Mail. I guess it doesn't matter about small matters like who you're actually listening to as long as they confirm your worst fears and stereotypes, eh?

What part, as a funds guru, do you disagree with? That crashing markets makes people a fortune? That our savings are going to evaporate in the near future?

That anyone who isn't preparing themselves is a fool?

@CO2Central

Marvellous!

I note liar as ass?

A satire sails on.

The Yes Men have just published a press statement: 'We've never heard of Rastani. He isn't a Yes Man.' More: http://www.yeslab.org/rastani

Thanks Peston!

Gaming an imaginary construct as real?

If Rastani is a synthetic derivative of a pundit then it would fit fine with the rest of the City's operations.

nome2323

Could I borrow one of your tinfoil hats?

I was working on the basis that the whole world is a hoax. I mean, this can't be real, right?

I sit on a real ass.

Speaks volumes of the world system as it currently stands when people struggle to tell the difference between an actual trader or a hoax.

Indeed, if he is exposed as a 'hoax' (seems pretty likely) worth nothing that there has rarely been a more accurate statement from a 'trader' on how they think and how the game works. Some people making serious money betting on a decline.

Similar to what Orson Welles did with the Martian landing hoax, comes close to exposing the 'tyranny of the expert' and weakness of the media, behind the ball.

nome2323
I've worked out your message using the capitalised letters in your post

BBC OBVIOUS PEOPLE WATCH OUT NOW ARE DO HE LOOKS NOTHING

It's bollocks.

From looking at his twitter page, i guess this guy is the real deal, who grew a concious somewhere, will probably lose it tomorrow, and be killed by the Elite for his comments by the weekend

A lot of what he said is true though. In a world ruled by money what control do destitute governments have over anything

I slate on-air ass.

I don't see any reason why it should be a hoax. It is just one person's opinion.

Fair play to him for getting a popular opinion aired on television that isn't normally allowed on television. Whether he is a trader or an activist or whatever he does make a very good point and I'd say that 3 minute interview he did is worth more than everything I have ever heard from Clegg, Cameron and Miliband put together have said this year....

This report is itself clearly a hoax. Look at the name of the third journalist: Oliver 'Laughland'. Cmon people open your eyes.

Come on the guy was struggling to keep a straight face. That was because the whole thing was a hoax or he just decided to see if he could actually get away with stating the obvious. If you take the time to read two of the best books about the markets and the recent financial crash Whoops and The Big Short nothing he says is surprising but the fact that he seems to be struggling not to burst into laughter makes me doubt who he claims to be.

Hehe,

Doomed if you do believe and doomed if you don't

No one person, government or business is in charge, not even Goldman Sachs.

This is all about what is infinity divided by infinity and is about to become what is zero divided by zero? God likes calculus it seems.

Look like the real deal the guy has been talking about Forex trading at conventions since 2008 as I can find. He did the Property Investors show in 2008, wealthcreation summit in 2010 talking about profits in any economic climate. He's a contributor to the Exchange Magazine which is on trading. I've found him advertising on Forums with links to his site back in 2010 about trading in a recession. He was writting articles for intheforex blog back in 2010 dishing out trading advice.

A fantastic bit of PR.

I think Mr Rastani is for real and it was great TV.
Wheres the hoax part coming from ?

He seemed to be talking a lot of sense to me.
and before his website went down it had some
very interesting stuff on there.

<

But if no-one can tell the difference between a real trader and pranksters who take the ideology of free markets to the extreme in order to make a political point, then that's pretty bad news for satire and for the global economy

Please define 'real trader' because as far as I have seen, the so called traders behave like pranksters.

Rastani's promotional website mentioned leadingtrader.com is available as cached. Simply google it, and it should come up, then select it as cached. Evidently, he took off-line...

If it isn't a hoax, I wonder if he may have caught a new and mutated form of the cold virus, the symptoms of which include reckless honesty?

If that is the case, we need to get him quarantined to the Houses of Parliament immediately!

No way. Its very clear the difference between those two videos.

He came across as a psycho who momentarily forgot that he was not talking to like-minded friends. His delivery was not smooth enough to feel rehearsed but if he is only an actor his career should skyrocket after this.

Although if he is the genuine, ice-cold capitalist he claims to be Cameron has probably already been on the phone to offer him a consultancy job.

The contact page, however, did not load,

None of it loads now; looks like a slashdotting (overload caused by becoming suddenly more popular than your website can handle) :-)

Brilliant work, that man. Nailed the BBC twice.

Alessio Rastani
No Alias Satires

no independent trader would ever be seen dead in a collar and tie

Some people making serious money betting on a decline.

The most unbelievable example of this I've read (and it could be untrue) are the traders that stayed (and died) in the 2nd tower on 9-11 to short airline stocks after the first one hit

Wonderful - strip away the doublespeak and doublethink and tell the banal, everyday truth that nobody dares believe. More, please. A parade of naked emperors on primetime TV, pimply buttocks and all.

Within two seconds anyone with a brain could tell this guy is a hoaxer. For those of you who think he's "the real deal, who grew a conscious somewhere", the only point at which he makes any kind of quantifiable prediction is when he says everyone will lose their savings in the next 12 months. Yeah, because talking about "savings" is the level traders are on. Anyway, if that prediction were a possibility then the only way to prevent it would be for governments to bailout banks. I guess those who believe he represents the 'truth" whether he's a hoaxer or not would agree that governments re-capitalise the banks.

northern983, what makes you think Guardian readers know anything about finance. They know bugger all, if their usual comments are anything to go by! As for the Guardian journalists, just look at what twits they've got writing about Greece. Totally clueless.

@caulfield I imagine it's crashed under the demand

This is no hoax - he's a genuine trader. Pretty poor research from the BBC/Guardian that they can't establish whether he is real or not. His website works fine.

He sounds like he knows his stuff in the telephone interview he did with Forbes magazine shortly after the BBC interview started making waves;

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilylambert/2011/09/27/trader-or-prankster-we-called-alessio-rastani-and-asked/4/

The most bizarre thing about the interview is how adamant Emily Lambert is that he's the same chap from the Yes Men, even though they really don't look very similar at all.

It becomes a level playing field again - i think he meant. Money just doesn't disappear into thin air!

Even if the guy is genuine, he clearly isn't that good a trader. Firstly despite his dire warnings his recommendations are pretty basic, buy treasuries!! Secondly if traders are all so smart why has this summer been one of the worst on record for the world's hedge funds (with a few honourable exceptions). Unlike this unknown, most of the world's best traders have track records going back through a number of periods of extreme market volatility, and they aren't finding this market a dream.

So nothing to get excited about. Although one must ask, where does the BBC get its commentators?

Seems pretty genuine to me. What he says is bracingly honest, but it's not wrong. He is a trader, his profession is to make money whether the market goes up or down. It's a null sum game and he intends to be on the side that makes money out of a downturn. Fine. Let's see if he actually can.

This guy is just Hugh Hendry without the chat.

Unsurprisingly, the money press has managed to turn all this into "is it a hoax or not?" story.

northern983, what makes you think Guardian readers know anything about finance. They know bugger all, if their usual comments are anything to go by!

So many commenters write stuff like this and so few are willing to explain anything in a pleasant way. Maybe people wouldn't be so misinformed if those in the know were to explain where they go wrong?