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Post by jevans4949 on Nov 25, 2013 11:23:46 GMT
Seems to me it would be good to open the auction immediately it's ready to post on the web site. This would avoid the feeding frenzy when it's opened, and Assetz could still contact the HNWIs in parallel - and even save themselves some effort in this regard.
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Post by chris on Nov 25, 2013 11:35:23 GMT
Seems to me it would be good to open the auction immediately it's ready to post on the web site. This would avoid the feeding frenzy when it's opened, and Assetz could still contact the HNWIs in parallel - and even save themselves some effort in this regard. It's one possible solution but I'm not sure it would work as we'd like. The reason for pre-listing the loans is to give lenders the opportunity to read through the paperwork before the bidding starts something that many members have let us know they appreciate. We're working on a variety of solutions, some procedural and some technological, that will help. Plus the user base is growing very rapidly alleviating much of the need for this manual approach. There's definitely a better balance to be found, although as previously mentioned this loan with its very short timeframe is a bit of a special case.
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Post by batchoy on Nov 25, 2013 11:43:33 GMT
I'm not sure about opening auctions immediately, as I like to have time do my own due diligence, an alternative particularly on smaller loans would be to limit the percentage of pre-bidding. This one was 84.21% funded prior to the auction opening and 40 minutes in is 98.68% meaning that anyone who hasn't got internet access during working hours is likely to have missed out.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Nov 25, 2013 11:51:28 GMT
I think the minimum £2000 Gold Club advance bids on smaller loans (say <£100,000) are probably too high - £500 would be better. (Unless there is urgency like the current one - which is a bigger loan anyway).
If there is a need for Gold Club, that is.
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Post by jevans4949 on Nov 25, 2013 12:02:37 GMT
I guess it depends how much you're investing as to how much due diligence you do. If you're putting in £10k-plus, then you'd put in more effort. If only £100, then 5-10 minutes skimming Assetz's documentation should be enough to decide if it's OK, or a potential can of worms - provided you trust Assetz.
It would be interesting to know the profile of the typical Assetz investor.
Edit: re batchboy's comment above: If all these latest auctions had been opened on Sunday, then the small punters who work during office hours could have placed bids - resulting in more happy punters.
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Post by chris on Nov 25, 2013 12:10:25 GMT
It would be interesting to know the profile of the typical Assetz investor. I'd love to give you the stats but I wouldn't want to give away all our secrets  Reality is there is a blend of all types of lender and we are trying to cater to a very diverse set of desires. We're not quite at that tipping point that some other platforms have reached, where pretty much anything they list is automatically filled, so we are still having to put in some manual effort to make sure loans fill. This places a natural bias on larger lenders as there are only so many people we can speak to in a given day. Every platform has a balancing act to perform in this regard, with no one getting it 100% right, but with a couple of tweaks I'd hope we will be striking the right balance for all.
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bugs4me
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Post by bugs4me on Nov 25, 2013 12:48:49 GMT
It would be interesting to know the profile of the typical Assetz investor. I'd love to give you the stats but I wouldn't want to give away all our secrets Reality is there is a blend of all types of lender and we are trying to cater to a very diverse set of desires. We're not quite at that tipping point that some other platforms have reached, where pretty much anything they list is automatically filled, so we are still having to put in some manual effort to make sure loans fill. This places a natural bias on larger lenders as there are only so many people we can speak to in a given day. Every platform has a balancing act to perform in this regard, with no one getting it 100% right, but with a couple of tweaks I'd hope we will be striking the right balance for all. Appreciate that it is in everyone's interests for the loan to be filled. But there is no mention about preferential treatment being given to others prior to bidding and IMO the biggest turn off from P2P or P2B is a lack of transparency on some web sites. I wouldn't have felt it wouldn't have gone amiss for disclosure on the Assetz site to state that preferential treatment...... or words to that effect. Okay, I'm in on this auction but that could easily have not been the case.
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Post by andrewholgate on Nov 25, 2013 13:04:22 GMT
Noted on that front and we are working on some new disclosures about how the Underwriters work and also the Gold Club. These will be released soon and give more transparency.
I would add, we are open about everything we do and strive to work with all our lenders, not just a select few.
A
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Nov 25, 2013 13:26:46 GMT
"...we are working on some new disclosures about how the Underwriters work and also the Gold Club."
Being an unsophisticated "almost beginner" in P2P/P2B I have certainly found Gold Club a somewhat vague and mysterious entity, mentioned by many in recent months, but strangely hidden from view. OK, I am in it now, but don't really understand its workings. For instance, apparently I have a shadow bid on this afternoon's auction - but no way of actually paying for it yet. This morning's offering was similar, and I did eventually find the request to "settle" the shadow bid, which I did. But that only appeared a couple of hours before the auction opened. What would have happened if I had been out today, and not settled my shadow bid before the auction was full? How long do I have to pay, having been given no opportunity to pay early?
Proper mention (and details of how to get in) of it on the website surely is important.... with details of what it is, and isn't.
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Post by batchoy on Nov 25, 2013 13:48:59 GMT
I note that this afternoon's loan is also being pre-bid, ok there is only one bid as yet but it is for 33% of the loan and there is still over 2hrs until the official opening time and again the opening time is not practical if lenders can't access the site during office hours.
If there are more offers of this ilk coming through which are going to be heavily pre-bid and sold out within minutes of the official opening of the auction, many smaller investors may actually been driven away simply because they can't lend, thus negatively impacting the whole platform.
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Post by chris on Nov 25, 2013 14:15:13 GMT
"...we are working on some new disclosures about how the Underwriters work and also the Gold Club."
Being an unsophisticated "almost beginner" in P2P/P2B I have certainly found Gold Club a somewhat vague and mysterious entity, mentioned by many in recent months, but strangely hidden from view. OK, I am in it now, but don't really understand its workings. For instance, apparently I have a shadow bid on this afternoon's auction - but no way of actually paying for it yet. This morning's offering was similar, and I did eventually find the request to "settle" the shadow bid, which I did. But that only appeared a couple of hours before the auction opened. What would have happened if I had been out today, and not settled my shadow bid before the auction was full? How long do I have to pay, having been given no opportunity to pay early?
Proper mention (and details of how to get in) of it on the website surely is important.... with details of what it is, and isn't.
The shadow bids are full bids that follow the same rules as any other bid. You only need to settle the payment by the time of drawdown for the system to work, but timeframes for payment should normally be discussed when the bid is placed on your behalf (we don't want everyone leaving it to the last second delaying drawdown).
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bugs4me
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Post by bugs4me on Nov 25, 2013 14:24:10 GMT
I note that this afternoon's loan is also being pre-bid, ok there is only one bid as yet but it is for 33% of the loan and there is still over 2hrs until the official opening time and again the opening time is not practical if lenders can't access the site during office hours. If there are more offers of this ilk coming through which are going to be heavily pre-bid and sold out within minutes of the official opening of the auction, many smaller investors may actually been driven away simply because they can't lend, thus negatively impacting the whole platform. Andrew has 'promised' new disclosure at some point in time which would be welcome. Offer is now at 50%!! May be the odd crumb here and there - who knows 
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Post by bracknellboy on Nov 25, 2013 14:31:44 GMT
Yes, 50%. I had this lined up as the first time I started upping my ante @ AC having only lightly dabbled to date. Moved money on Sunday in anticipation. I do rather hope I'm not going to be disappointed.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Nov 25, 2013 14:33:04 GMT
"The shadow bids are full bids that follow the same rules as any other bid. You only need to settle the payment by the time of drawdown for the system to work, but timeframes for payment should normally be discussed when the bid is placed on your behalf..."
Thank you Chris .... no discussion has come my way on this. No real problem though because my "day out" scenario won't matter as I can pay at an early stage after the auctions start, or long before drawdown.
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Post by batchoy on Nov 25, 2013 14:41:40 GMT
I note that this afternoon's loan is also being pre-bid, ok there is only one bid as yet but it is for 33% of the loan and there is still over 2hrs until the official opening time and again the opening time is not practical if lenders can't access the site during office hours. If there are more offers of this ilk coming through which are going to be heavily pre-bid and sold out within minutes of the official opening of the auction, many smaller investors may actually been driven away simply because they can't lend, thus negatively impacting the whole platform. Andrew has 'promised' new disclosure at some point in time which would be welcome. Offer is now at 50%!! May be the odd crumb here and there - who knows 50% in 2 bids: having been given a bit of heads up on these loans before they were listed, I moved funds in specifically to use in bidding on them, however it is annoying to find that there is a secret privileged few who can potentially wipe out my opportunity to bid because they have pre-bidding rights. I have to say that I did get a portion of this mornings loan but only because every alarm to hand was set to 10:55 and I was sat at my screen clicking the browser refresh at 11:00 so that I could bid the moment it went live. Anyone going to give odds on tomorrow's loan being fulfilled before the auction officially opens?
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