registerme
Member of DD Central
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Post by registerme on Jul 9, 2017 16:18:05 GMT
I've been thinking for a while now that the Excel sheet I use to manage my various investments isn't really where I want it to be. That having been said I am reluctant to invest much more time in it because I don't really think that a spreadsheet is the right answer. What I want is a database. Now that could be Open SQL or MS SQL Server (which I think might be free at the moment?), or even MS Access {shudders}, whatever, at the moment I am pretty ambivalent when it comes to tech choice.
But why make one just for myself? Especially seeing as I can't code my way out of a plastic bag..... Surely this is something that we as a community could do to the benefit of all, and if we did it there a) wouldn't be any platform worries about giving away tech and b) we wouldn't be paying aggregators to do this kind of thing for us.
Now, to repeat, I can't code. At all. But I could help with design, analysis, testing, documentation etc.
Does this idea have any merit at all? Do we have any capable developers who might be interested in contributing to it?
RM
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Post by d_saver on Jul 9, 2017 16:28:56 GMT
I've been thinking for a while now that the Excel sheet I use to manage my various investments isn't really where I want it to be. That having been said I am reluctant to invest much more time in it because I don't really think that a spreadsheet is the right answer. What I want is a database. Now that could be Open SQL or MS SQL Server (which I think might be free at the moment?), or even MS Access {shudders}, whatever, at the moment I am pretty ambivalent when it comes to tech choice. But why make one just for myself? Especially seeing as I can't code my way out of a plastic bag..... Surely this is something that we as a community could do to the benefit of all, and if we did it there a) wouldn't be any platform worries about giving away tech and b) we wouldn't be paying aggregators to do this kind of thing for us. Now, to repeat, I can't code. At all. But I could help with design, analysis, testing, documentation etc. Does this idea have any merit at all? Do we have any capable developers who might be interested in contributing to it? RM I use a spreadsheet too, for my overall p2p investment list, but I have coded other apps for different parts of my p2p investments. I have no idea what goes into your spreadsheet, but I can code it  If it's something I and the wider community can benefit from, I might be able to contribute.
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Post by dan1 on Jul 9, 2017 16:51:03 GMT
Firstly, I'm no developer, and certainly not a capable developer.
Spreadsheets have their place in tracking portfolio valuations, returns, platform allocations etc. Where I would be interested in a db is for connected borrowers, primarily because of the differing axes - loans, platforms, individuals, Ltd companies, charges, accounts etc. But, how can this be done given the rule not to ID borrowers or their assets? A closed db with controlled access I presume?
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registerme
Member of DD Central
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Post by registerme on Jul 9, 2017 17:04:32 GMT
Spreadsheets have a role, yes, but for anything properly "grown up" you really don't want to be using one.
I wasn't thinking about having a shared db that we all entered data into etc, I want to know nothing about anybody else's postions. Instead I was thinking about the same db schema, code, interfaces, reports etc that could be held on something like github, and that we would all be free to download and then populate with our own data.
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ozboy
Member of DD Central
Mine's a Large One! (Snigger, snigger .......)
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Post by ozboy on Jul 9, 2017 18:51:00 GMT
Bejaysus paul123, that's some posting!!  |
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fp
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Post by fp on Jul 9, 2017 18:56:55 GMT
Just for fun, here is some of the base schema. Edit: Sorry, all the indenting seems to have been lost. If anyone 'gets' what I'm doing here, I'd be interested to know. ------------------------ <snip>Trying to confuse everyone? 
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Post by chris on Jul 9, 2017 19:08:42 GMT
paul123 - we're currently beta testing a public API amongst a small group of lenders. Interested joining the fun and no longer having to screen scrape?
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Post by wiseclerk on Jul 9, 2017 19:53:55 GMT
There have been various startups trying to build a portfolio management solution for investors.
None that target European investors have been up and running for long so far. One problem is that very few plattforms offer an API so far. But APIs and solutions using them will come.
One question now is whether it will be a dedictated p2p lending management solution gaining first mover advantage or a player from a different field (thinking of all the money management aggreation services making use of PSD2)
The situation in the US is different. One solution there for example is Lendingrobot.
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Post by cyrilmadrid on Jul 9, 2017 20:50:43 GMT
I tried to use SQL to agglomerate loans across platforms, but ran across difficulties (am not an expert programmer !)
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Post by robberbaron on Jul 10, 2017 21:48:21 GMT
Ironically, I moved all my data to Google Sheets, as I found it surprisingly versatile, and with the QUERY Formula, you can create something that is close to a DB. It's now set up for all my platform investments, and most of it is automatic via scraping data from the source (i.e. the Platform Dashboard). Do you scrap data directly from Google Sheets or do you use another program?
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bigfoot12
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Post by bigfoot12 on Jul 12, 2017 15:42:24 GMT
I have used MySQL for many years and am very happy with it. My problem is that when I try to aggregate data across platforms the data I have available is very different and so I find it hard to get anything very useful. (Some loans are are in the North East, others are in Newcastle, both loans are secured, but some are secured on tangible property, whilst another might be secured on IP or business assets.) I didn't want to miss out on the data when it was there, but what to do with other sites that don't have it. In the end I have a few dedicated tables - in particular for the platforms with the worst interfaces. I never found a satisfactory compromise, and as I am generally reducing P2P I gave up trying.
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If it's something I and the wider community can benefit from, I might be able to contribute. 
