Where would you invest most P2P money in August 2015?

In 2009 I was advised by a regulated Financial Adviser to invest £100,000 of my pension savings into a bond. 2 years later an Official of the Financial Services Authority (now the FCA) announced to the press that this bond was 'toxic'. This comment started a panic and a run on the bond which eventually caused it to collapse. Investors (including myself) lost thousands of pounds. The Official at the FSA 'resigned' shortly afterwards.

Be VERY careful with comments.

Those individuals would most likely be committing a crime if they posed as consumers to recommend something. If I recall correctly the potential penalty is up to five years in prison via the county court.

If they didn't pose as consumers but instead posted about any investment they are involved in they have to comply with the FCA's financial promotions rules or risk penalties, if they are engaging in a regulated activity.

Beyond that, the platforms here are engaging in a regulated activity and part of their responsibilities is to ensure that those they do business with conduct themselves properly, so we should be able to expect that platforms would strongly discourage any comments made without proper disclosure. I expect that a platform would be very unhappy indeed if an underwriter used information that was not public to recommend something here because it would reflect badly on the platform itself.

On the moderation side of things I don't think it's an issue of potential liability for this place or its moderators, just something to be aware of and discourage. It'd be different if this place was getting referral fees or commissions, though.

Still there are indeed risks for investors from such individuals if they were not to conduct themselves appropriately.

"a bond"? Just one? Surely there was much more being invested in total? An adviser saying put all your money into one thing at that sort of value would be a good clue that you need a different adviser, though there are exceptions.

Two other cases on a similar theme would be:

1. New Star Out of Africa Fund. During what should have been a routine market downturn there was an excess of redemptions over ability to sell investments. The FSA forced all investors in the fund to sell near the market bottom by compelling the fund to liquidate everything. Those who knew that it was just a routine downturn and didn't want to exit ended up suffering as a result.

2. CF Arch Cru. An interesting-looking diversification tool. Except that it misrepresented what it was investing in and the trading on the Guernsey stock market in the underlying investments was according to regulators badly handled. The latest in this ongoing saga is £260,000 of fines and five year bans for some individuals involved in the Guernsey market part of it. Notice the descriptions of the relationships of those involved. More here. Back in 2014 even the Channel Islands Stock Exchange was fined for its failings in relation to this fund. Then there was the matter of the Arch Cru CEO and compliance director. And all of this for a fully FSA regulated fund, more so than the light touch P2P regime we have today, where there were multiple parties who were supposed to be monitoring the fund's actions.

I used CF Arch Cru in some mixtures of funds intended to illustrate diversification and how to probably beat savings accounts. I got a better demonstration than I expected. For a few years someone criticised me on the basis of mentioning that fund. After a while they gave up. Anyone who'd just copied what I wrote would have been well into profit, well better than savings, even with the loss involved in CF Arch Cru. I don't really like practical demonstrations of the value of diversification but it works to protect investors. I stopped mentioning the fund when I learned of a proposed use of investor's money to invest in a project in Africa that was described in part on being on the basis of the religious principles of one of the senior people. That seemed to me to be a clear conflict of interest and a potential flag of fund assets being used for personal gain or regarded too much as personal assets to do with as desired.

As investors it would be wise for us to remember that there is a lot we don't know about the platforms we're using and the underlying investments. Diversification is one of the most critical protective tools we have available.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

A good employer to help you understand eggs and baskets, at least...

So why is the Fail obsessed with Horlicks??

I haven't noticed one interesting thing about her.