Zero Hedge's first post appeared on 9 January 2009 at 4pm,[38][2] and the domain was registered on 11 January 2009.[
citation needed] According to the
Boston Business Journal, the website "publishes financial news and opinion, aggregated and original" from a number of writers "who purportedly hail from within the financial industry."[39] Almost all in-house articles are signed under the collective pseudonym, "Tyler Durden", a character in the Chuck Palahniuk book and movie
Fight Club.[39][2]
In September 2009, news reports identified
Daniel Ivandjiiski, a Bulgarian-born, U.S.-educated,[d] former hedge-fund trader, who was barred from the securities industry in September 2008 for earning US$780 from an insider trade by FINRA,[40] as the founder of the site, and reported that "Tyler Durden" was a pseudonym for Ivandjiiski.[2][41] FINRA rulings show Ivandjiiski worked for 3 years at New York investment bank, Jefferies & Co.,[42] as well a number of hedge funds, the last of which was Wexford Capital LLC, a fund led by former Goldman Sachs traders.[43] One female site contributor, who spoke to
New York magazine in an interview arranged by Ivandjiiski, said "up to 40" people could post under the "Tyler Durden" pseudonym.[2] The same New York magazine article, published on 27 September 2009, stated that Ivandjiiski's father was
Krassimir Ivandjiiski,[2] a Bulgarian publisher and editor of the pro-Russian right-wing conspiracy theory website
Strogo Sekretno ("Top Secret"),[1] and monthly publication
Bulgarian Confidential, since 1994.[e][1]