twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 10, 2017 23:33:19 GMT
Well, you do have Two Heads (Obv a comment directed at twoheads, new2P2P, bin enough aggro on this site today ..... ) Hmmm...
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 10, 2017 22:27:36 GMT
I wouldn't attach too much importance to what the previous owner was saying because he was trying to sell it and get the best price so you could argue he would come up with an argument like that. as far as I can tell there is a long recent planning history on this property and a planning inspector himself ruled there was no residential planning consent in place and furthermore the council I said quite recently they were determined that the side should remain non residential. the fact that saving stream have put this one on hold after the Barrage of emails they received today from us all asking the same question suggests to me that solicitors one not able to confirm the property had lawful use as residential or else there would not be this delay. it has been a truly exhausting day with saving stream and I am totally wiped out by it all and as a result I can't face another day of it and I have set my pre-funding To zero on the R****** boat moorings as well. I have found out enough to suggest to me that the character of this borrower is not worthy of my funds. I've just got back from the pub and appear to be seeing double. I've just got back from the pub and appear to be seeing double.
... or is that quadruple?
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 10, 2017 19:02:32 GMT
I don't think this will go live soon. [Probably wrong... as usual.]
However, I will invest in both but not for full term... probably sell after around 8 months (or shorter if more negative information appears).
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 10, 2017 14:31:33 GMT
if the PF pays out, in order to maintain the 2% level...another 1. whatever mill has to come from somewhere.... as 106 looks to have gone about 2mil short, interesting times ahead The shortfall on these two alone would completely wipe out the PF.
I presume that the PF is replenished by ploughing some of SS's share of interest (guess £750k per month) into it? If this is so, then paying out from the PF will reduce SS's profit. Not paying out from the PF will cost investors and reduce confidence with the long term effect of, again, reducing SS's profit.
Replenishing the PF back to 2% would take a minimum of 4 months if ALL SS's interest was ploughed into it... which it wouldn't be.
One or two more similar defaults in that time could not possibly be stood by SS and must end up costing the investors.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 9, 2017 21:21:29 GMT
gurberly... Brilliant... I was never a fan of smileys/emoticons or whatever they're called.
Now I am.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 9, 2017 11:03:50 GMT
SS introduced a new column to their downloaded CSV format on 9th January. This new column contains the remaining term.
Version 4 of the spreadsheet (in the original post) includes this new column for the remaining loan term so that the pasting of the data from the downloaded CSV into the interest calculation spreadsheet remains simple.
Also in version 4 I changed the interest calculation dates to calculate interest for January 2017.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 8, 2017 17:49:51 GMT
Stranger still...
When I downloaded my entire transaction list today I found that several historical transactions (from months back) had been reordered.
My balance was unchanged and the various transaction amounts were all equal but the order was changed which means that the balances at various intermediate times are sometimes different. In particular, the interest payment sequence for my October and November interest has completely changed. Also a few other transactions have been reordered but when this has happened the reordered transactions are always very close together in time: usually a batch of sales of small loan parts of some property or other which would all have occurred within a minute of each other.
Also, two November interest payments were completely removed, both were for £0.00 so it makes no difference. It is still a liitle odd that previously they were in my statement and now they're gone!
I think that this can only be because the SS transaction log is only accurate to the nearest minute. I also think that all interest payments for a month are given the same time and date (I'm guessing precisely 12am at the very start of the last day of the month). These are complete guesses on my part but would explain the facts.
So, I can make a guess at the reason for resequencing of historical transactions here: I think that historical transactions are sometimes reordered (interest run?, end of year? possibly other times). They are ordered by their stored date and when dates and times of two transactions are equal then, with many common sorting algorithms the order becomes arbitrary. Many sort algorithms (e.g. quick sort) do not preserve the sequence when sorting items which are equal. Other sorts (e.g. the superior merge sort are called stable sorts and these preserve the order of items which are considered equal). Most common languages use quick sort as their default sorting mechanism. Thus when dates and times of transactions are equal, then sometimes they are reordered by the SS transaction sorting algorithm.
Why is merge sort superior? Mostly due to efficiency. The efficiency of quick sort is effectively random and depends on the initial sequence. Usually it's very fast (near to best possible) but sometimes it's efficiency can be terrible although this is statistically very unlikely. Merge sort always runs at optimum efficiency and that efficiency is equivalent to the best possible case for quick sort. Also, merge sort is stable, preserving the sequence of items considered equal in the sort order whereas quick sort will reorder items which are considered equal (the reordering looks random although in fact it is predictable if you know the precise details of the quick sort algorithm used).
Quick sort is the common choice because of the history of computer science. Merge sort is more efficient but requires some temporary extra memory to run. Quick sort does not require extra storage. Therefore, in days of old, when knights were bold and memory was expensive (and in short supply), everyone was taught quick sort. Modern languages still tend to use it as the sort of choice.
End of computer science lesson - thank you for reading!
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 5, 2017 17:34:42 GMT
I have thoroughly read the papers pointed out by solicitorious .
I have analysed the scripts from 0risk as far as I can (although my programming expertise is certainly not in JavaScript).
The papers (in particular the securitee paper) point out that: - The vast majority of script based hacks are made by designing a deliberately malicious script which you attempt to get an unsuspecting user to install.
- The rest of the script based hacks exploit technical weaknesses in otherwise non-malicious scripts which may be in use.
Even to a novice programmer, it is clear that the scripts do nothing malicious, untoward or dodgy in any way.
So, do these scripts have any of the weaknesses described?
There are basically two weaknesses which are described in the securitee paper: - Overly-generic scripts: I.e. they can run on sites for which they were not designed. Thus a malicious site can be designed to activate the script and it may be possible to subvert it.
- A rather technical weakness but, as far as I can tell, it can only be exploited if the script can be made to run on a malicious site (see 1, above) or if the SavingStream site itself is hacked so that it uploads malicious code to its users.
On point (1): the scripts are completely specific to the SS site. They follow the recommendations of the paper and will not run on any other site.
On point (2) I am on less sure footing but, since the script will only run on the proper SavingStream website then there is no issue providing that the SS site is itself secure.
Also, overly-privileged scripts are mentioned: I.e. they are granted more privileges than they strictly require for their function. [Although this is not actually an attack weakness, it is more good practice.] Simple scripts do not usually need much in the way of privileges. If such a script can be subverted then it's lack of privileges will often provide enough protection. The general rule is to grant only the minimal privileges required to function. These scripts are simple and, as such, have an absolutely minimal set of privileges which is precisely as it should be.
It is my opinion that these scripts are completely safe.
On the point of the SS site being hacked: If this is the case then malicious stuff can be uploaded to our browsers from the site irrespective of whether we use these scripts. However: using these scripts does potentially increase the possible damage which an SS hack could cause.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 5, 2017 15:31:59 GMT
Some people with saving stream accounts are using BOT or computer programs to buy investments on the secondary market. Are these " programs " available for all to use ? and if so where can i get them from? ---- trying to get a level playing field !!!! There has been much discussion on this over the past few months.
There is a freely available browser extension with some instructions which can be found in this thread.
This enhances some SS web screens and alerts you when loans in which you are interested come up for sale. This means that, providing you are at your computer, you can get on with other stuff with only an occasional distraction rather than being stuck refreshing and observing the SS website manually. Effectively the computer does the boring stuff for you (that's what they're good at after all).
The program cannot actually buy loan parts because solving the recaptcha requires human intervention. It will get you to the buying page, fill in a predetermined amount and let you do the rest.
I do not call this a bot but others do; we don't all share the same definition of what a bot actually is.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 5, 2017 15:09:17 GMT
Shocked that scripts like this are allowed to be promoted. it is scripts like this that are exactly why places like saving stream are not going to get FCA authorisation because they are definitely it has to the equitable. greed is not a nice thing and we see it here in its worst form where people are going to the trouble of writing highly complicated toads to give themselves the Edge and get more than other people well let me remind them of this that when their actions result in the saving stream not getting authorised and it's becoming discredited because it is owned and controlled by a bunch of people using codes then it will fall apart and it is the people with the codes who will end up losing the most money because the normal saver has left and giving up long ago because of them How is a publicly available script, which anyone may use, not equitable?
If you want equitable, then should we ban users with gigabit connection speeds because they have an advantage over those with only a megabit or two? Should we ban users who work all day on their computers because they have some kind of an advantage over those who do not? Should every user be forced to use a standard computer, operating system and browser combination to keep things fair in some sense?
The best way to gain a real advantage is to do your due diligence checks and the easiest way to make a start in that is by using the posts of cooling_dude in which a host of information from multiple users is collated. Perhaps the DD posts should be banned as they give one the edge over those who invest blindly, tempted by 12% and SS's current record?
The vast majority of investment is via prefunding new loans and not through buying on the secondary market. The secondary market is primarily a vehicle to get your cash out if necessary and it is geared to sellers not buyers, a fact that has been pointed out by many on this forum. It is the highly volatile SM which gives many investors (rightly or wrongly) the confidence to use P2P and SS in particular. If you are a new investor, then trying to build your portfolio on the SM will lead to frustration. I and many before me have found this.
The script in question simply highlights loans in which you are interested without you having to be locked in a cycle of refreshing and observing. If you are at your computer, working on something else, then it will alert you and you can decide whether to buy and then fill in the nearly inevitable recaptcha: a distraction of a few seconds.
Also remember that this script and others cannot actually make the purchase for you because solving the recaptchas requires human intervention.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 5, 2017 12:06:01 GMT
... After this confirmation I've made a subjective estimate of how many troubled loans there should be, and having done so I'm feeling concerned about the number than I was. am , presumably that's more concerned than you were?
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 5, 2017 11:00:01 GMT
FWIW I'm not seeing either of the problems mentioned here... does that mean it was fixed before I saw it, or that it's only affecting some accounts? You're right. On looking today, the transactions are ordered and paginated correctly with the balances matching across pages.
I'm guessing that it's a phenomenon caused by the interest run.
SS insert the interest, backdated into the transaction history. I.e. they do the run on the 1st of the month but insert the interest payments so that they appear in the transactions for the last day of the previous month... thus before any transactions already made on the 1st. EDIT: In fact, on my account, the interest payments appear as the earliest transactions in the last day of the month, preceding all other transactions for the day.
It is possible that a temporary negative balance that you may have run up by early buying on the 1st, may never appear in your final transaction log because the interest payments are inserted before your purchases.
I am assuming that the reordering of transactions is time consuming and that downloading transaction history during this process causes the online view of the transactions to be confused.
Interestingly, the download to Excel does not suffer this problem.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 4, 2017 0:20:30 GMT
This is under active discussion by the mod team at the moment. We have yet to reach a conclusion but there are valid reasons to be concerned.
* How is the integrity of such tooling guaranteed going forwards? * What could the (perceivable?) promotion of such tooling mean for the forum, and, of course, lenders' funds and the platform itself?
Absolutely the best solution would be for the platform to provide functionality that rendered such "third party tools" redundant. savingstream , any thoughts on this? I look forward to your published conclusions.
If this browser extension was my work, I would be proud of it and more than happy to share the benefits.
It is something that any sufficiently able programmer can make and it is credit to it's originator, 0risk, that it has been shared in order that all may gain the advantages it provides.
If there are those who do not wish to use this extension then that is their decision. I do not use it because it is not compatible with my browser of choice. I have made something similar for myself but I have not shared it because it is not so easy to use.
The point is: this extension is freely available. Banning enhancements such as this on this forum will have no effect. The sources will simply move to other arenas for distribution and thus the advantages they provide will be restricted to the few who know where to look.
At least if these software enhancements remain on this forum, then the users here may make their own choice rather than have that choice made for them.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 3, 2017 23:03:25 GMT
How d'you think the Vatican got so wealthy...? Brainwashing.
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twoheads
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Post by twoheads on Jan 3, 2017 22:32:05 GMT
Thanks for the effort, but accessing a large part of my life savings through something called TamperMonkey? I think I'll pass... [@mods, do you have a policy on these things? I'd get one, pronto...] Don't let the name put you off. I agree it sounds but this package allows users to customise an existing site and, in this case, make it better.
I don't think mods are required. You have clearly been able to make your choice without them.
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