Hi @ r00lish67
I'm a full time private investor, so I guess I'm online most of the day. I post here for a couple of reasons; social, my own note taking and because it offers some potential gateway into direct equity holding (for those that aren't). I guess it also illustrates, to some extent, how little P2P investor might know about the the ultimate asset they are investing in.
I also post on Interactive Investors, London South East and a few other quiet boards.
If you've read much of what I have to say about WA I think you'll see I consider them as early stage. I'm a shareholder as well.
To put that in contex my exposure to the collective WA, platform and equity, is less than 1% of my overall portfolio and I think I've said before my position in any one of their "notes" is 25% of the opening position I might take in listed equity. The kind of position I'd take for reseach, so I get RNS etc from my broker, the LSE and other.
I do believe it could be a fabulous asset class for private investors, but it's very early days, hence my position.
I've also found it valuable as an equity investor. I belive it's made me much better in assessing high risk companies that are listed and I've made long-short bets with more confidence as I've explored the psyche and culture of debt investors.
If this works out, I'm as confident as you can be, I'd expect my investments on the platform, per "note", to increase x40 - x120.
In the interim, I'm happy to learn (and benefit) from a part of the market that I wouldn't get exposure to prior to WA.
For reference: I have cash/investments/equity with Zopa, Ratesetter, LendInvest ( ORB bonds Direct), Funding Circle, Nutmeg, WiseAlpha, Seedrs, Octopus Choice so I'm exposed to the sector, but I also hold several debt/fixed income ETF's, funds & Investment Trusts. Including VSL.L
I'm adding cash here and Octopus at the moment, but I'm considering Downing (WA for the remainder of 2020) as I'm concerned about cash drag on Octopus (but it's early in the year).
I like to invest monthly, on average 10-15% of my cash goes into the sector. Spread across corporate debt (WA), property (Octopus) SEIS/EIS (Seedrs).
2020 is likely to deliver less equity growth ( over the last decade I've achieved x7 my initial capital), so I'll be exploring broader options to deliver a double digit returns from the income stream my portfolio generates. In that mix, some high yielding corporate debt (never call it junk LOL) appears sensible. As long as it's Recognising WA hasn't been around that long.
Hope that answers your question?
