Zero Hedge

Zero Hedge
Web address www.zerohedge.com
Slogan On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Type of site
 Editorial, News aggregation
Available in English
Launched January 2009 (2009-01)
Alexa rank
 Negative increase 2076 (March 2014)[1]

Zero Hedge is a financial blog that aggregates news and presents editorial opinions from original and outside sources. The news portion of the site is written by a group of editors who collectively write under the pseudonym "Tyler Durden", a character from the novel and film Fight Club.

History

Zero Hedge was founded in January 2009.[2] Posts are signed "Tyler Durden," a character in the Chuck Palahniuk book and movie Fight Club,[3] reflecting the news site's activist posture.[2]

Despite speculation that "Tyler Durden" is a pseudonym of Daniel Ivandjiiski,[3][4] who was penalized for insider trading in New York in September 2008, Ivandjiiski denies being a founder of Zero Hedge. Rather, he says he is one of several writers contributing to the site under the pseudonym.[5] In a 2009 interview, one editor claimed that there are four editors in total at Zero Hedge[2] but another editor said there were up to 40.[3]

In 2010, Morgan Stanley threatened to pursue legal action against the website for its alleged plagiarism of Morgan Stanley research.[6]

On April 29, 2016, the authors behind Zero Hedge, writing under the pseudonym "Tyler Durden", were outed as Colin Lokey, Daniel Ivandjiiski, and Tim Backshall. Lokey, the newest member exposed himself and the other two when he left. Ivandjiiski, is a Bulgarian-born former analyst while Backshall is a credit derivatives strategist.[7][8] On leaving Lokey said, "I can't be a 24-hour cheerleader for Hezbollah, Moscow, Tehran, Beijing, and Trump anymore. It's wrong. Period. I know it gets you views now, but it will kill your brand over the long run. This isn’t a revolution. It's a joke."[7]

Website

Some of the editors have professional experience in finance and business operations roles.[2] It reports on economics, Wall Street, and the financial sector and is credited with bringing the controversial practice of flash trading to public attention in 2009 via a series of posts alleging that Goldman Sachs' access to flash order information allowed it to gain unfair profits.

Zero Hedge publishes anonymously to protect the editors from retaliation for dissident speech. The editors maintain that this also safeguards integrity, objectivity, and independence. One editor cited McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, which upheld anonymity as a First Amendment right of free speech.[2]

Competitor's characterization

The site was described by CNNMoney as offering a "deeply conspiratorial, anti-establishment and pessimistic view of the world."[9] Other writers have characterized the site as conspiratorial.[10][11] A Forbes article described the site as a source of hysteria and occasionally misleading information.[12]

Readership

In September 2009, Zero Hedge had begun drawing more traffic than certain financial websites[5] with 333,000 unique visitors a month.[4] Durden says two-thirds of its readers are from Wall Street.[2] According to Quantcast, in 2012 Zero Hedge had a monthly global traffic of 1.8 million people. In 2016 3.3m.[13] Under the name Tyler Durden, Ivandjiiski was interviewed on Bloomberg Radio[3][14] and Zero Hedge has been quoted in the Columbia Journalism Review.[15]

In December 2012, Bank of America blocked its employees' access to Zero Hedge.[16]

Matt Taibbi cites Zero Hedge as having accurately assessed the level of corruption in the banking industry. He questions why mainstream financial media did not earlier detect the corruption at Goldman Sachs.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "zerohedge.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Damien Hoffman, "First Amendment Award for Outstanding Journalism: Best Blog Zero Hedge" Wall St. Cheat Sheet (August 4, 2009). Includes interview with co-founder "Tyler Durden." Retrieved May 12, 2011
  3. 1 2 3 4 Joe Hagan, "The Dow Zero Insurgency" New York magazine (September 27, 2009). Retrieved May 12, 2011
  4. 1 2 Justin Fox, Wall Streeters like conspiracy theories. Always have Time blog (October 1, 2009). Retrieved May 12, 2011
  5. 1 2 Kaja Whitehouse, "Blogger May Have a Past" New York Post (September 2, 2009). Retrieved May 12, 2011
  6. ↑ "Morgan Stanley May Sue Zero Hedge For Publishing Their Research As Its Own". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  7. 1 2 Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street's Renegade Blog Bloomberg
  8. ↑ The Full Story Behind Bloomberg's Attempt To "Unmask" Zero Hedge Zero Hedge
  9. ↑ Matt Egan (25 September 2014). "Zero Hedge: Wall Street's daily dose of doom and gloom". CNNMoney.
  10. ↑ Salmon, Felix. "The Zero Hedgies". Reuters Blogs. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  11. ↑ Fox, Justin. "Wall Streeters like conspiracy theories. Always have". Time. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  12. ↑ "Zero Hedge Still Wrong On Maersk, Global Trade And The Baltic Dry". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  13. ↑ "Zerohedge.com Site Info". Quantcast. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
  14. ↑ Tim Fox, Interview with "Tyler Durden" on Taking Stock (MP3) Bloomberg Radio. (August 20, 2009). Retrieved December 4, 2011
  15. ↑ Ryan Chittum, "Insurer Alleges Fraud by Bear Stearns and JPMorgan" Columbia Journalism Review (January 25, 2011). Retrieved May 12, 2011
  16. ↑ Moore, Galen (2012-12-19). "Bank of America blocks employees from reading Zero Hedge blog". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  17. ↑ Matt Taibbi, Griftopia, New York: Spiegel & Grau (2010), p. 208
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