Funding Circle filing for IPO

interesting posts above

I note FC advertise lending rates from 1.9% - well that is going to give lenders a good rate I don't think.

As I have said before FC are basically trading in debt and if or rather when hit another recession it will be interesting to see what this does to the product and whether the stress tests prove valid. I guess in order to keep their volumes up FC can either really lower rates offered to borrowers -  over which we have no control or take on ever more risky loans - over which we have no control.

Saw an interesting programme recently about the 2008 crash starring RBS - well that one went well didn't it ! 

IPO - I don't think I will invest in it although might be of interest to the shorters...

I realise theres a price difference between buy and sell..but is that a marked variance between the two in a relative short space of time ?

Although the market makers (wholesalers) of the FC stock will widen the bid / offer spread (buy / sell spread) in periods of price volatility, the real issue here is that the market has not believed the Funding Circle story and therefore the launch was well and truly overpriced. For a short time after an IPO the underwriters of the stock are allowed a degree of market manipulation called stabilisation to try to smooth out price fluctuations. When the stabilisation period ends, the stock will be well and truly on its own and will find its own level. I would expect that level to be well down on the launch price.

I am one of those former Funding Circle investors who left (only one investment left which should be repaid by the end of the year) because of the way in which they manage lender relations. Although I am not a malicious person, I have had some satisfaction to see that there are other people in the real world who do not believe the FC hype either.

For FC to have been a successful investment from the point of view of the pre-IPO investors, not only will it have to start to generate profits in the future but it will have to generate sufficient profits to recoup all the investment made to date which has been considerable.

The real share price action might be a little way down the line in the next economic downturn when we see whether the FC stress testing projections turn out to be correct or not. If they turn out not to be on the money, it will be ketchup day for the share price.

But well done to the FC people who did manage to make some money for themselves from the IPO. At least somebody has got something substantial out of FC.

I might be out of date about how the LSE works these days (and I have never been 100% au fait with equities) but I think that two different things together produced the prices above. cb25's post shows the price at that moment, but that is at one moment in time, the purchases above are more than an hour after the sales. This is a volatile stock it is not surprising that it has moved a lot in that time.

Furthermore, the price a market-maker has to quote is probably for 2,000 shares. In reality it will be much more than that, and there may be more than one market maker, but the price is unlikely to be good for two million shares. Given the two purchases above have the same time stamp and same price it is likely that they are part of the same transaction - one fund manager buying shares for two sub funds. It is possible that there are many other transactions which whilst smaller than these add up to further increase the total size. The price to buy millions of shares will usually be higher than the screen quote. Same goes for the sales at 11:16.

Heading towards 4 up days in a row - should have bought the 330's last Friday!

IG seems to allow it if you are really that keen