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Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

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Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#31

Post by whatok »

shrikant wrote: post #17
tobltobs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> first ones to break or provide color on important stories. No question about the color, but do you have an example for those "break on important stories".

I can't speak to the "important" in that claim, but the folks at ZH have friends and connections in the world of finance from whom they can get leaked communications and reports. For example, this post on Trump's nomination chances [1] draws heavily upon charts produced by Goldman Sachs, presumably for their clients only. [1] http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-20/can-trump-win-gener... Edited to add : I also know…

Pretty much all financial news outlets receive research from all the sell-side banks. ZH stealing a chart from a GS report is nothing special.

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#32

Post by tobltobs »

jazzyk wrote: post #23
rmah wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the "huge following"... Yes, lots of people read it, send links to friends, etc. But, most of the time those links are sent for comedy or shock value, not because people think it's serious news. To use an analogy, zerohedge is like the 4chan of the finance world.

If there is shock value, it is because ZH focuses on facts (yes, they are usually well documented facts), which the so called mainstream media chooses to ignore, because the narrative does not suit their corporate owners. Most of ZH's reporting is backed by numbers coming from other sources. They also report rumors ahead of everyone else, which seem implausible, but later turn out to be facts and reported by other ou…

"ZH focuses on facts". Seriously?

>They also report rumors ahead of everyone else, which seem implausible, but later turn out to be facts ...

Sure, if you spitting out rumors all day there will be one or two cases per year where you hit a nail.

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#33

Post by 6stringmerc »

tobltobs wrote: post #11
chollida1 wrote: post #7

If no one has been to the site before here it is: http://www.zerohedge.com/ Believe it or not it has a huge following in the finance world due to it often being one of the first ones to break or provide color on important stories. It's not uncommon at all to see a row of traders with tweet deck open allocating a single column to Zero hedge, they are just that prolific with their output. The downside of the site is th…

> first ones to break or provide color on important stories. No question about the color, but do you have an example for those "break on important stories".

In my experience, for a while when oil was extremely volatile up over $100 per barrel, they were at the forefront of breaking any supply chain stories (ex: Suez Canal). I survey many different sites and I have seen ZH do some very timely and organized reporting. Also, they aggregate a lot of big names (Gross, Gundlach, etc) so I don't have to track down their latest missives. There is a very long and seemingly unending row of garbage barge stories and sensationalism to deal with though, I will never deny that.

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#34

Post by dismal2 »

tobltobs wrote: post #13
whatok wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's completely untrue. Zero Hedge breaks news before a lot of outlets and writes on a lot of market events that other sources will not touch. I'm not disagreeing that you need to have a filter when reading but they absolutely do provide value.

> breaks news before a lot of outlets Any examples?

All their coverage of hft when nobody was talking about it

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#35

Post by alistproducer2 »

maze-le wrote: post #16

I stopped reading this site some years ago. It had, and probably still has some interesting opinins and analysis. Most content is pretty far fetched / sensationalist, but if you have your grain of salt, this is not a problem, since most media outlets do this in one form or another. About 2 years ago the tenor of the publications shifted from libertarian to more and more reactionary (bordering on proto-fascist). When…

>I think that the authors have no problem with authoritarianism

Like any conspiracy site, it's going to attract people who share a view of the world in which everything must be orchestrated, controlled - a reason for all things. Randomness has no place in the mind of a conspiracy theorist. The order provided by conspiracies comfort the conspiracy theorist: paradoxically making the world feel safer, more ordered while simultaneously believing that evil people have devoted their lives to ruining yours.

If you think about it, such a psychology is naturally authoritarian-leaning. Such a mind yearns for stability, order and control.

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#36

Post by 21 »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #24
maze-le wrote: post #16

I stopped reading this site some years ago. It had, and probably still has some interesting opinins and analysis. Most content is pretty far fetched / sensationalist, but if you have your grain of salt, this is not a problem, since most media outlets do this in one form or another. About 2 years ago the tenor of the publications shifted from libertarian to more and more reactionary (bordering on proto-fascist). When…

My thoughts exactly. I was a daily reader of ZH going back to its very beginning. The tone of it's articles and comments became unbearable ~2011 so now I only go there a couple times a year out of nostalgia.

I was IP banned from that site around 2011 because I left a comment saying that if you did what the site was preaching in the previous two years (2009-2011), meaning shorting the market because the second collapse is just around the corner, you would have lost a ton of money.

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#37

Post by dismal2 »

I think whether you like the site or not depends mostly on if you think there was a fundamental recovery after 2008 or just an asset bubble generated by extremely easy monetary policy around the world.

Only time will tell who's "right" in the end!

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#38

Post by TorKlingberg »

maze-le wrote: post #16

I stopped reading this site some years ago. It had, and probably still has some interesting opinins and analysis. Most content is pretty far fetched / sensationalist, but if you have your grain of salt, this is not a problem, since most media outlets do this in one form or another. About 2 years ago the tenor of the publications shifted from libertarian to more and more reactionary (bordering on proto-fascist). When…

Could you link to a couple of examples? I am not interested enough to go searching.

I did find an anti-vaxxer piece on the frontpage, which did not exactly inspire trust: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-28/why-our-children-sh...

Re: Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge

#40

Post by tomp »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #35
maze-le wrote: post #16

I stopped reading this site some years ago. It had, and probably still has some interesting opinins and analysis. Most content is pretty far fetched / sensationalist, but if you have your grain of salt, this is not a problem, since most media outlets do this in one form or another. About 2 years ago the tenor of the publications shifted from libertarian to more and more reactionary (bordering on proto-fascist). When…

>I think that the authors have no problem with authoritarianism Like any conspiracy site, it's going to attract people who share a view of the world in which everything must be orchestrated, controlled - a reason for all things. Randomness has no place in the mind of a conspiracy theorist. The order provided by conspiracies comfort the conspiracy theorist: paradoxically making the world feel safer, more ordered while…

So, all people who were saying that NSA is spying on the whole internet (before Snowden, that was the conspiracy) were secretly authoritarian?!
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