baldpate
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Post by baldpate on Feb 10, 2015 16:29:56 GMT
I apologize if this question has been asked and answered before : if it has, I suspect it is buried deep somewhere in one of the bigger discussions where I can't find it.
Imagine I have cash sitting uninvested in my MIA. I have unsatisfied targets set on a number of loans. The availability of these loans on the secondary market is unpredictable, but my investment in them is gradually creeping towards it's target. A loan I particularly wish to participate in will be drawing down soon (and presumably coming to the AM very soon thereafter), and I have set a target for it. Is there any way to 'ring-fence' part of the free funds in my MIA so that the ring-fenced part is only applied to the upcoming loan?
The only solution I can see is to temporarily disable investment in all other MIA loans which have not reached their targets until I have got what I want in the upcoming loan. Apart from the manual effort (not great, I admit), the disadvantage of this approach is that I miss out on potential opportunities to top-up the disabled loans.
Is there any other solution which I've missed?
Thanks
Chris
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ianb
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Post by ianb on Feb 10, 2015 16:52:38 GMT
I cant think of another way other than that you mention, but then you may loose out on other stuff ..... you could try a bit of a hybrid approach where you just trim down the other targets so that a large chunk of your cash doesn't get gobbled up but you are still there for bits and pieces... but that's the only other thing I could think of (I'd also speak to someone at AC to see if you can find definitively when the drawdown will occur and leave the amount you wanted in Cash until just before this, then place it out there in the MIA with the other targets reduced... but not sure if you could get this info).
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Post by pepperpot on Feb 10, 2015 16:53:18 GMT
Ah, the global disable switch, that doesn't exist (yet?) Yes, the only way currently is a laborious disable/re-enable of all targets before/after drawdown. And with a new loan coming your targets are likely to achieve some purchases. The easier way is to transfer in enough to cover all targets + the new loan target, and then transfer out all but your usual float once things settle down again. But, do you agree chris, that it would be far easier if you could disable all targets, then re-instate the one or two that you want to be live.   |
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Feb 10, 2015 17:15:56 GMT
It's messy. When a new loan is about to draw down, a lot of people will be selling off all sorts of "little/moderate surpluses" which they have been secreting away in their other loans as a method of "parking cash". These may well be the loans in which you are topping up. While you are waiting for the new loan to actually drawdown and become available, all these bits and pieces will be gobbled up by your topping up instructions, thus dispensing with all your money which is meant for the new loan ... unless you disable them all. What is needed in MLIA is a "reserve facility" whereby a set amount of money waiting in MLIA cannot be used except on a specified loan. For instance, if I have £2005.99 awaiting investment, I want to reserve £1000 to fund Bloggses Donuts loan which is drawdown imminent. That would mean only £1005.99 is available for other MLIA activity. chris Can it be done? |
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j
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Post by j on Feb 10, 2015 17:32:26 GMT
I think the gents' answers above pretty much covered it all so won't add anything else  |
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surby
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Post by surby on Feb 10, 2015 18:31:21 GMT
It's messy. When a new loan is about to draw down, a lot of people will be selling off all sorts of "little/moderate surpluses" which they have been secreting away in their other loans as a method of "parking cash". These may well be the loans in which you are topping up. While you are waiting for the new loan to actually drawdown and become available, all these bits and pieces will be gobbled up by your topping up instructions, thus dispensing with all your money which is meant for the new loan ... unless you disable them all. What is needed in MLIA is a "reserve facility" whereby a set amount of money waiting in MLIA cannot be used except on a specified loan. For instance, if I have £2005.99 awaiting investment, I want to reserve £1000 to fund Bloggses Donuts loan which is drawdown imminent. That would mean only £1005.99 is available for other MLIA activity. chris Can it be done? I like the idea of a reserve fund for new issues, but sometimes there is more than one loan about to drawdown so it could get complicated....! What is really needed is good information on when drawdown will occur, with perhaps a minimum of 24 hours notice to enable us to get our funds (re)organised.
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Post by batchoy on Feb 10, 2015 18:37:32 GMT
AC has ceased to be about investing in 'particular' loans as and when they are released it is now basically a regular savings platform where relatively small amounts are absorbed into the active loans. The only manual thing about the MLIA is that you can manually set the targets for each investment thus increasing or decreasing the maximum target you wish to hold in each loan. Attempting to do anything beyond this requires either a disproportionate amount of manual intervention and the possibility that you will miss out on investing in other loans and lenders sell off parts to fund their attempt to purchase new loans, or large amounts of uninvested cash left sitting waiting to be invested.
If I were still investing in the platform I would be treating it as a regular savings platform, I certainly wouldn't be worrying about being able to get sufficient cash deposited in time to pick up parts of a new loan.
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Post by chris on Feb 10, 2015 18:42:45 GMT
Would a "priority investment" flag on each loan solve this more elegantly? Targets for priority loans are reserved against the cash balance and only if there's anything left over will it be invested in other non-priority loans.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Feb 10, 2015 18:50:49 GMT
"...but sometimes there is more than one loan about to drawdown so it could get complicated..."
I envisage the reserve facility on my MLIA resources being configurable to fund anything in the list of loans on the upcoming list to the limit of the target set. If less than the target were to be allocated, the balnce of the reserve on that loan could be returned to the main MLIA stash. I forgot to mention my target of £500 in the imminent Grandgrumps.com Pensioners Aids loan, so my example above would only have £505.99 available for general investment.
edit: "Would a "priority investment" flag on each loan solve this more elegantly? Targets for priority loans are reserved against the cash balance and only if there's anything left over will it be invested in other non-priority loans."
Looks an interesting solution  Is it that simple?
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dave
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Post by dave on Feb 10, 2015 20:22:34 GMT
It seems like a nice simple idea, but what would happen if I had 2 loans flagged at 500, but only 800 in MLIA at the time, would it split 400/400, 500 on the first available and 300 left over for the 2nd, or randomly? best regards Dave (or should I just set only one priority loan ) |
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Post by chris on Feb 10, 2015 20:51:53 GMT
It seems like a nice simple idea, but what would happen if I had 2 loans flagged at 500, but only 800 in MLIA at the time, would it split 400/400, 500 on the first available and 300 left over for the 2nd, or randomly? best regards Dave (or should I just set only one priority loan ) First come first served. Two pools with one being the subset of the other.
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sl75
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Post by sl75 on Feb 10, 2015 23:05:51 GMT
Brand new loans would tend to be widely available for several days/weeks after the loan draws down, because they're widely distributed amongst many users, including some who will be reducing their target soon afterwards (e.g. for diversification, or because they change their mind, or they routinely buy more than they want long-term in order to get the first month interest but sell before the first repayment, or any number of other reasons).
If I was going to use a "priority investment" flag it would be the exact opposite - I'd set the priority flag on the older, rare loans that are difficult to get pieces of, with a specified amount of money "ring-fenced" for those priority loans, and only amounts of money above that amount considered for other investment targets.
The amount ringfenced should be able to be specified as an amount lower than the total target of all priority loans - e.g. I might have a dozen "priority" loans all with (say) £200 targets, but ringfence only £100 of funds in total for all of these, as almost all availability will be in shrapnel-sized chunks, making the £100 more than enough of a buffer for the likely short-term availability. If I have £150, it would then allow £50 of investment in other targeted loans.
As a general point, I wonder if such extra layers of complexity in the MLIA are necessary at this time. Going forwards, the bespoke investment accounts should supposedly allow everyone to set up whatever their own esoteric requirements might be...
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Feb 11, 2015 1:32:20 GMT
Brand new loans would tend to be widely available for several days/weeks after the loan draws down, because they're widely distributed amongst many users, including some who will be reducing their target soon afterwards (e.g. for diversification, or because they change their mind, or they routinely buy more than they want long-term in order to get the first month interest but sell before the first repayment, or any number of other reasons). We obviously need a bit of history to have a better idea, but I'm not sure all new loans would be as widely available as sl75 suggests. No doubt a lot will depend on the size of the new loan. If it's huge, then there will be plenty of availability, but if it's small it might all go to targets set in advance and never show up in the Aftermarket again. Consider the old £260k JR loan (#8). I think I've had a target set for this loan ever since it was possible to set targets, yet I've never bought any of it -- not even mini-shrapnel! And I've never heard of anyone else who has managed to buy any part of this loan.
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Mike
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Post by Mike on Feb 11, 2015 1:59:00 GMT
Consider the old £260k JR loan (#8). I think I've had a target set for this loan ever since it was possible to set targets, yet I've never bought any of it -- not even mini-shrapnel! And I've never heard of anyone else who has managed to buy any part of this loan. As an aside: is there any way to know what interest rate one would receive if they did manage to get hold of a bit of shrapnel of #8? I have assumed that this loan is a special case given its interest rate band and as a result isn't available through the AI, although I also have non-zero target.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Feb 11, 2015 2:16:43 GMT
Consider the old £260k JR loan (#8). I think I've had a target set for this loan ever since it was possible to set targets, yet I've never bought any of it -- not even mini-shrapnel! And I've never heard of anyone else who has managed to buy any part of this loan. As an aside: is there any way to know what interest rate one would receive if they did manage to get hold of a bit of shrapnel of #8? I have assumed that this loan is a special case given its interest rate band and as a result isn't available through the AI, although I also have non-zero target. AIUI, the answer to the question is No. If you bought a part you'd get whatever interest rate that part had, and it could be anything within the range. But having a variable rate isn't enough to make a loan untradeable on the Aftermarket. There is another loan with a range of rates, KPG (#40), and that one does appear on the Aftermarket surprisingly often. I say "surprisingly" because it's not a big loan -- £150k -- and most of the parts I've picked up have had rates of 14.5%+. Since it's a fully amortising loan, the LTV will decrease noticeably with time, and between that and the interest rate I'd have expected most lenders would want to hang on to it. But obviously many may have used it for a reliable source of cash pretty much on demand, as I now have a four-figure investment in it.
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Is it that simple?