Who is The Australian Financial Review’s longest-serving veteran? It’s not John Davidson, even though he has been writing technology reviews since 1996; and it’s not editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury, he wrote his first article in 1982, and he’s had a longish spell elsewhere.

The paper’s oldest hand is actually fictional: his name is Alex Masterley. He is the pinstriped cartoon financier whose antics have for decades skewered the world of banking and broking, with often unnerving accuracy.