metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 31, 2015 15:06:33 GMT
Point taken, nick, but I think it is already 'game over'. Perhaps, but have Faith Chum. Edit: I tapped "like" but on this one it was a (possibly Freudian) fat finger. I don't really like the thought, let's hope that spring will come.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 31, 2015 14:50:02 GMT
I do not insist on a level playing field, but would prefer not to play on it blindfolded. As a trader/active investor, asking for more transparency is like a turkey voting for Christmas......... ... be careful what you wish for ...
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 31, 2015 14:42:57 GMT
Just read in the FT that Samir Desai gets CBE in the New Year Honours List Mr Desai said: “This honour is testament to the hard work of the Funding Circle team who have helped originate £1.25bn of loans from thousands of investors to small businesses in the last five years, creating over 50,000 new jobs globally.” Are we congratulating or picking over some inflated numbers??? Presumably includes the US platform? And European?
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 30, 2015 14:50:47 GMT
In any case, shutting down Autobid on the SM because you have nothing on the PM and want to hold the cash until there is something on the PM is improper fiddling in the market for an operator IMO - even if they do declare it. I don't agree. I think that transparency is normally best, and is certainly my preference, but beyond that I think that they should be reasonably free to use auto bid how they choose. The only people they should consider are the investors whose autobid money they are investing. I believe autobid investors should reasonably expect their funds to be speedily invested at the diversity % they have chosen. If I used autobid I would not be happy for my cash to be left sitting idle in reserve waiting for a trickle of new loans when plenty of loan parts are available for immediate investment. We seem to be talking about an accumulation of a few days income and capital repayments I suppose. However, funds placed for investment should be fully invested as soon as possible. Further, where other investors are looking to realise funds fot whatever purpose, it does not seem reasonable to place an artificial obstruction. I'm sure other platforms attempt to facilitate withdrawals as smoothly as possible subject to new demand.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 29, 2015 15:08:22 GMT
I took the banner to mean payments falling on 25th Dec onwards would be delayed by 1 working day per intervening Bank Hol until after the holiday effect has completely worked through. The delay would arise where each Bank Holiday falls anywhere in the 5 calendar day period from request date to loan payment due date. As there are weekends in with the Bank Hols, any slack in the 5 calendar days normally allowed to cope with weekends won't reduce the payment delay. Actual experience may vary!
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 28, 2015 12:46:38 GMT
Aotobodge would have more to spend if repayments had been made. One or two look like they crept through but vast majority are 'processing' which means they are 'not processing ' but are stuck. Don't forget the banner on the Summary page which warns that Direct Debits are held up over the bank holidays. Only property payments should have gone through.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 27, 2015 18:07:10 GMT
[Sorry folks, I got confused and managed to delete my earlier post. Here it is followed by GSV3MIaC's response and a new response]. Thanks acky for sharing your detailed analysis combining many pieces of data. A big unknown is the proportion of money going to autobid. The proportion of new money going to autobid may be different from the proportion of interest payments going to autobid. The profile of investors may be different. Some may draw off interest as income, though perhaps it is not significant. A £2000 portfolio earns ~40p interest per day or takes ~7 weeks to buy a loan part from interest. Perhaps many investors save a little each month and this is when their interest also gets rolled in to new loan parts. We don't know what proportion of portfolios don't usually reinvest income until new money is added. And what proportion of the money that does reinvest directly from interest is set to higher SM rates. Then there is the saturation effect on large property loans. acky you have shed interesting light on the black box, but still it keeps its secrets dark. We assume some rules or levers are in play, yet the explanation may be different. If I were an autobid investor, I would at least expect FC to keep my funds working and would feel aggrieved if not. Having read GSV, I agree there must be some stockpiling mechanism. Note that unless the £2k portfolio is ALL in property loans, there is also a principal return of £2 per day, so you can actually buy a new loan part every week or two, rather than every 7 weeks. And that doesn't account for early redemptions. Yes, the black box is very black, but we do know it carries money over to the next day's auctions, and (apparently), when there are no auctions the next day, it doesn't then invest it in the SM instead. I missed that, being mostly in property. Of course autobidders are mostly diversified across all loan types in their chosen risk bands. Would £2/£2000 per day of principal return amortising be for a pure SME portfolio or a typical portfolio? It might be less now with property in the mix, and 5 year loans? I guess the loan book would give the proportion of loans in SME/property for new or all loans, also average duration. I still think a proportion of income may get rolled in with new money saved to buy parts, reducing the % of overnight income going directly into bids. The £100 minimum deposit goes against my argument though.
It will be interesting to see whether autobid functions tonight, now that the PM is empty.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 26, 2015 16:53:33 GMT
As a Short Term loan, I'm wondering whether the borrower is seeking to pay off the principal before it officially goes into another month? The technical issue would let them stop the clock while funds are moved. We'll see anyway. I'm not holding this one, so can't see the details, but paying off as early as possible is generally the idea with Short Term loans.
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metoo
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Funding Circle (FC)
E-Alert!
Dec 22, 2015 21:11:52 GMT
Post by metoo on Dec 22, 2015 21:11:52 GMT
astonished at the idea ... Autobodge managed to respond fast enough to bag it for you before the loan filled! The second bid looks like an Autobodge too... Looks like a fluke Autobodge was alive and pointing at that loan when bidding opened, though it is meant to target the least filled loan... As soon as keen bidders and bots get going, it's then no longer the least filled loan and Autobodge turns its attention elsewhere.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 22, 2015 18:29:20 GMT
I've noted a few instances lately of parts that I have put up for sale staying for sale for 2 or 3 days beyond the 14 days. As parts temporarily disappear from the SM while processing monthly interest, perhaps the clock is paused and resumes once processing is complete. It could account for a 2-3 day extension in some cases?
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 22, 2015 16:59:30 GMT
I've noted a few instances lately of parts that I have put up for sale staying for sale for 2 or 3 days beyond the 14 days. My records are compiled daily and I am certain this is not my mistake. Must be a technical error or maybe another time warp in the Faulty Calendar.So it would be interesting to watch the Time Left column daily and see what happens there. Perhaps it only happens when you don't look. Sometimes parts get mysteriously delisted. I've seen that a few times. I've also seen where the number of parts of a loan actually on the SM is more than the SM listing says, and when parts I've listed aren't actually there (when viewed from another account of course). There are other events reported, but possibly you are first to spot this one. I guess in the phenomenon you're getting, the clock may jump backwards at some point, perhaps when interest payments are made, or when they're fiddling about renaming parts or distributing a late CB or something like that. Most intriguing.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 18, 2015 14:49:36 GMT
Remember, they say they are a tech platform, matching borrowers with lenders, not a Financial Company. Do they really say they are a tech platform and not a financial services company? I really hope they know what they are and what services they provide to earn their money. The tech platform is just a means. What they are really developing of value is an efficient assessment process for loan applications from SMEs, giving acceptable and stable (we hope) losses when used with diversity. That is what they are selling and exploiting, together with the means of distributing the loans and repayments via a tech platform. If they were judged on the platform there's a thread on this board which would not help them exploiting it in other ways. Perhaps I should have left that out, especially as it was not the point of my post, and you are absolutely right. In the back of my mind, I picked it up from a few places. Most recently www.fundingcircle.com/uk/careers which says "So are you a finance company? No. We may work in the finance industry, but at our core we are a technology company that does finance." I suppose it is unfair to Fortran Computing to quote that, as it's their recruitment page where they are looking for good engineers to sort out the Fractal Chaos.
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metoo
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Funding Circle (FC)
SM rates
Dec 18, 2015 13:09:20 GMT
jayjay likes this
Post by metoo on Dec 18, 2015 13:09:20 GMT
Considering they've got £150m in near-cash burning a hole in their pockets, it's a total mystery why they would ever offer cashback ever again. The fund won't buy all tranches of large projects. It may even have some exposure limit for any one borrower, perhaps 0.5% of the fund? If Fine Castles can pull in more borrowers, they will need lenders to match. To grow the business until it becomes world dominating, both sides of the business have to grow. Remember, they say they are a tech platform, matching borrowers with lenders, not a Financial Company. There is always a tendency for imbalances between growth on the supply and demand side of loans. And they probably turn away the larger property projects as unfundable, so I expect they will always be testing that limit. All the platforms seem to struggle matching supply and demand. That is where CB comes in. They also pride themselves in being able to offer borrowers very fast execution. Again, CB makes it possible. CB has a role, provided they can find enough borrowers.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 16, 2015 11:49:23 GMT
Incidentally, why is it called the SME Income Fund, if it takes property loan tranches, some of which are to private individuals...? I wonder what % of its assets will be in property. I had expected a separate Property Income Fund. Because even FC think the current risk-vs-return for their SME loans is a bit iffy. If they're going to re-brand it, can I suggest the "SME Loan Library"? I agree on the asset-secured risk-spreading. But, as it buys Whole Loans, it will have to hold till repayment (or refinancing). And taking these facts together, plus gearing, interesting to wonder what the risk profile might be in a sharp property downturn.
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metoo
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Post by metoo on Dec 10, 2015 16:42:10 GMT
I jumped ship a long while back and am only left with a string of defaulted loans a few of which dribble in a few pennies very occasionally. I have a similar problem with AC loans except that I am now down to seven defaulters who ultimately may produce (deep breath a small prayer) most of my capital but little or nothing by way of interest owed. I am afraid my high hopes with both FC & AC are now just sad learning experiences and taking into account all factors I would have done better at leaving my £50k+ in the Nationwide at 1% interest. merlin , to understand how your experience compares with what Frightfully Confident publish on diversified returns, may I ask what percentage of your FC+AC lending total was the individual size of your defaulted loans? I appreciate you were diversified across other platforms.
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