economic situation is dire

[peterms]

The "Occupy Wall St." movement is in it's 2nd week and seems to be growing. It's also spreading to Boston and L.A....this could be very interesting.

Not sure if they are doing a very good job since my office is closer to Wall Street than the plaza they are occupying and I haven't seen any sign of them other than a pizza box in the Wall Street station on Monday with "Eat the Rich" written on it. Should probably be renamed "Occupy the paved area beside Century 21 with the dodgy kebab carts".

Isn't that because the police have fenced them into a very small area, and have attacked them with pepper spray even while standing peacefully inside that kettle, never mind trying to move around a bit?

[Risso]

I'd rather hear from a UK Uncut representative than listen to a pretend trader.

Me too.

The comment from the Grauniad was a bit off the mark, though. Someone doing keepy-uppy in the park isn't a professional footballer. This guy does however apparently make his living (or part of it?) from being an "independent trader", as captioned in the original Beeb interview. He's not employed as one or accredited and regulated as one, but it sounds like he is what he presented as. The comparison with misleadingly presenting someone as a pro footballer is quite false.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. He's a complete nobody put up by some BBC researcher who's probably had their P45 handed to them by now. He isn't a trader, any more than I am, and most parks footballers are more of a professional footballer than he is a professional trader.

I can see why you'd want him to be the real deal, as it gives more fuel for your left wing rants, but he isn't, and you've been had. First rule of being made to look foolish - don't keep digging.

[Risso]

Turns out it's a public speaking business he's involved in.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8792829/BBC-financial-expert-Alessio-Rastani-Im-an-attention-seeker-not-a-trader.html

"I'm an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking."

[LondonLax]

To be fair to the BBC it was only the 24h news channel he was on rather than a proper bulletin.

It would be tricky coming up with new people to interview every hour and they probably didn't think it would cause as much fuss as it did.

[peterms]

I'd rather hear from a UK Uncut representative than listen to a pretend trader.

Me too.

The comment from the Grauniad was a bit off the mark, though. Someone doing keepy-uppy in the park isn't a professional footballer. This guy does however apparently make his living (or part of it?) from being an "independent trader", as captioned in the original Beeb interview. He's not employed as one or accredited and regulated as one, but it sounds like he is what he presented as. The comparison with misleadingly presenting someone as a pro footballer is quite false.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. He's a complete nobody put up by some BBC researcher who's probably had their P45 handed to them by now. He isn't a trader, any more than I am, and most parks footballers are more of a professional footballer than he is a professional trader.

I can see why you'd want him to be the real deal, as it gives more fuel for your left wing rants, but he isn't, and you've been had. First rule of being made to look foolish - don't keep digging.

Are you familiar with the psychological concept of "projection"?

I can see why you would want him to have no connection to the world of trading - but he does. I can see why you would like to think I believe he's a fully paid-up member of the City, Broederbond and Bilderberg, but unfortunately you can hold that belief only if you have either not read or not understood my posts above.

I made two points in the post quoted. Both stand, and your ill-informed and gleeful attempted put-down is also wide of the mark.

But please keep digging.

:winkold:

[TheSufferingVilla]

Isn't that because the police have fenced them into a very small area, and have attacked them with pepper spray even while standing peacefully inside that kettle, never mind trying to move around a bit?

I wouldn't be prepared to believe the hype, the only fencing and macing I've heard of was around Union Square last week, theres a couple of extra coppers with a fence protecting the Bull outside my office from vandalism. Other than that they should be fairly free to move around. Anyway I'm leaving the office now and walking up that way to investigate. Will let you know more when I get home.

[peterms]

To be fair to the BBC it was only the 24h news channel he was on rather than a proper bulletin.

It would be tricky coming up with new people to interview every hour and they probably didn't think it would cause as much fuss as it did.

On the other hand, they don't find new people every hour (on the rare occasions I see BBC news 24 I quickly tire of the repeated footage), and I'm sure they knew it would be something which attracted attention (see for example Peston's tweet).

The real question is whether this view is representative of traders more widely. If it is utterly unrepresentative, then the question of whether he is a "real" trader is important. The question then would be whether they denounce his views and distance themselves from them, and if so, whether they are sincere in what they say and whether their actions bear this out. If his view is entirely typical of them, then it's pretty insignificant whether he's actually a paid-up member of the club.

In decrying his credentials and background, commentators are trying to do two things: first discredit the Beeb (the Torygraph comments column is a good example of this, as no doubt the Mail and Sun will be); and second imply, without actually saying so in so many words, that his attitude is not really representative of traders more widely.

Quite a few people who have commented from what seems to be a right-wing standpoint have acknowledged that the views he expressed are indeed pretty representative of how traders think.

I wonder if many people dispute that, and if so, why?

[peterms]

Isn't that because the police have fenced them into a very small area, and have attacked them with pepper spray even while standing peacefully inside that kettle, never mind trying to move around a bit?

I wouldn't be prepared to believe the hype, the only fencing and macing I've heard of was around Union Square last week, theres a couple of extra coppers with a fence protecting the Bull outside my office from vandalism. Other than that they should be fairly free to move around. Anyway I'm leaving the office now and walking up that way to investigate. Will let you know more when I get home.

Don't listen to the hype, watch the movie.

Some footage here.

Doubtless lots more over your side, must have been lots of people filming what the police were doing.

[Risso]

It's helpful that he's so frank about it, for anyone who had the slightest doubt about his sector.

"His sector" indeed. You've been royally had, and your attempts at shifting the goal posts are as obvious as they are predictable.

[Risso]

In decrying his credentials and background, commentators are trying to do two things: first discredit the Beeb (the Torygraph comments column is a good example of this, as no doubt the Mail and Sun will be); and second imply, without actually saying so in so many words, that his attitude is not really representative of traders more widely.

Well obviously they are, and quite rightly so.

The BBC haven't interviewed an "expert" on the subject, they've got somebody who's a self-confessed attention seeker, who has obviously grasped his five minutes of fame and been as controversial as he possibly could.

Secondly, as he isn't a real trader, then no, it's not possible to gauge whether his views represent those of other real traders.

[peterms]

It's helpful that he's so frank about it, for anyone who had the slightest doubt about his sector.

"His sector" indeed. You've been royally had, and your attempts at shifting the goal posts are as obvious as they are predictable.

Oh? Is he perhaps an outreach officer for a local authority?

A development worker for one of your hated third sector organisations?

An engineer in part of the productive economy?

A producer of local, organic, fair traded food?

Or is he in fact part of the finance sector? One of the hangers-on rather than a main man, no doubt - but both this and his other employment (speaking/consultancy or something) appear to be within the nonproductive, parasitic part of the private sector, rather than anything in the real economy.

No, I haven't been had. No, I'm not shifting goalposts. Yes, your tedious repetition without benefit of reading what I actually said is tiresome.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Those protests will fizzle out soon enough. Too much apathy around, which is a shame, because we could do with some people power. However, if millions can't stop a war, then i'm a tad cynical that our elected governments will listen when it comes greater fairness.

They'll bang on about it, sure, and promise much. The cold, hard facts show a different picture though.

Long live the american dream!

[Risso]

Ah OK, so now that you acknowledge that he's not actually a trader, the goal posts have not only been moved they've been widened to the entire length of the pitch. So he's part of the "parasitic" finance sector is he, and worse, the private sector at that. So are his views representative of the entire private sector, and not those of the totally non-parasitic and completely productive public sector then? I think we should be told.

[TheSufferingVilla]

Roving reporter TSV just returned from the scene.

There's about 200 protesters and about 10 cops keeping an eye on things. Almost all the protesters are aged between 16 and I'd say about 24. Badly dressed in expensive trainers with hand written signs and a couple of lousy handwritten handouts photocopied at Staples across the street (as I was passing they were coming out of Staples with more). Everywhere I looked was expensive MacBook Pro's, way to stick it to the big profit hungry corporate powers!

If you are going to protest at least put some bloody effort in. You should see the Teachers Union, those cats know how to prove a point, or the airline guys out protesting the merger between Continental and United on Tuesday. 10 pilots in uniform marching single file up the street is worth at least 400 scruffy white middle class students.

As for their message, I visited the protest and **** if I know what exactly it is other than "Screw the Banks!"

As for the videos, there's 35,000 coppers in this city many of them clearings in the woods, but law enforcement has a way of attracting clearings in the woods their position is indefensible but I've seen a lot worse than a lone copper pulling out pepper spray and certainly there was no heavy handed police work on display today.

[tonyh29]

Or is he in fact part of the finance sector?

I am an experienced stock market and forex trader and professional speaker. I have had the privilege of learning from some of the world’s greatest traders.

I have a strong foundation in US and UK stocks, using precision timing and tools for entering and exiting the markets.

Now I worked with investment bankers for 8 years (in IT) i could write almost exactly the same spiel that he has on my web page (if i had one) .. I went to conferences with traders i helped install and support some of the "tools" they used , i even had them all on my PC for support purposes ..heck I used to see the morning briefing notes before the markets did some times ....

and yes I traded as well , as a contractor the compliance department somehow forgot to get me to sign the various legal disclosures :-)

BUT

that still wouldn't make me a trader or an expert , and nor is that bloke

[tonyh29]

Almost all the protesters are aged between 16 and I'd say about 24. Badly dressed in expensive trainers

so US Students are just like UK students then :winkold:

give it 5 years and they will all be back there in suits asking for jobs

[Risso]

In other economic news, it's the IOM elections today, and my neighbour and IOM treasury minister Anne Craine has lost her seat.

[tonyh29]

In other economic news, it's the IOM elections today, and my neighbour and IOM treasury minister Anne Craine has lost her seat.

where does that leave the zero/10 corporate tax policy ?

[Risso]

In other economic news, it's the IOM elections today, and my neighbour and IOM treasury minister Anne Craine has lost her seat.

where does that leave the zero/10 corporate tax policy ?

The EU have recently concluded that now the attribution regime has been done away with, it isn't considered harmful any more. Which is great news. And the departure of Anne isn't going to change that really, she wasn't that great anyway to be honest.

[jonno_2004]

I'd rather hear from a UK Uncut representative than listen to a pretend trader.

Me too.

The comment from the Grauniad was a bit off the mark, though. Someone doing keepy-uppy in the park isn't a professional footballer. This guy does however apparently make his living (or part of it?) from being an "independent trader", as captioned in the original Beeb interview. He's not employed as one or accredited and regulated as one, but it sounds like he is what he presented as. The comparison with misleadingly presenting someone as a pro footballer is quite false.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. He's a complete nobody put up by some BBC researcher who's probably had their P45 handed to them by now. He isn't a trader, any more than I am, and most parks footballers are more of a professional footballer than he is a professional trader.

I can see why you'd want him to be the real deal, as it gives more fuel for your left wing rants, but he isn't, and you've been had. First rule of being made to look foolish - don't keep digging.

Are you familiar with the psychological concept of "projection"?

I can see why you would want him to have no connection to the world of trading - but he does. I can see why you would like to think I believe he's a fully paid-up member of the City, Broederbond and Bilderberg, but unfortunately you can hold that belief only if you have either not read or not understood my posts above.

I made two points in the post quoted. Both stand, and your ill-informed and gleeful attempted put-down is also wide of the mark.

But please keep digging.

:winkold:

So we should generalise the views of an entire sector/populus based on the opinions/views of one somewhat radical element that has been sensationalised by the press to appear as part of the real sector?

Sounds a bit too Nick Griffin for me.