Frustrated... how do I invest?

It looks complicated but it's actually very simple on AC, it's just that you don't know when and what you're going to pick up until you've got it. Set a buying target on all the loans you fancy buying into, stick some cash in your MLIA account and then leave it a few days / weeks / months as the shrapnel accumulates into sensible holdings. You can set (say) 50 targets of £50 but only need stick (say) £500 into your account. It will stop buying a loan when your target is reached, and stop buying altogether when your cash is used up. Then adjust targets and add more cash progressively as you go along.

New loans are listed on the Upcoming loans page and you set your buying targets there in the same way. You will only receive (some or all of) your allocation if you have free cash available at the time a loan launches so, if you have a £250 target set on several Upcoming loans, try to keep at least £250 free cash balance in your MLIA ready for when the next one draws down. The "Underwriting Called" flag should appear a couple of days before a loan activates, which someone usually spots and mentions in the "Upcoming Loans / Drawdowns" thread on this board. 

You can also tick the box to sweep all of your uninvested MLIA cash into the lengthy queue for the QAA account, where it will earn no extra interest. Very occasionally some of your money might actually make it into the QAA itself and earn a few extra nanopence for a week or so, until the next new loan launches and it gets sucked out again 

We haven't been given any numbers but in the past we have been told that reasonably large sums move around.

Investboy, I don't want to teach you to suck eggs and perhaps you found it obvious, but do make sure you have transferred money from your Cash Account to your Manual Loan Investment Account. Otherwise you'll get nowt.

There is currently a big chunk of loan 36 available. This is very rare, and I can't see a problem with the loan. It is GBBA eligible so may not be around long.

This struck me as odd as well.  There's been no update for that loan today, so it's hard to say what might have triggered this.  The fact that jonah's parts sold so quickly suggests the parts for sale are from a small number of accounts -- perhaps even just one.  I wonder whether an underwriter or other deep-pocketed investor might have been holding onto a big chunk of this loan but now has an investment opportunity that they wish to take advantage of.

I suppose a large investor could have decided to pull out because of the difficulty AC are having obtaining management accounts -- as reported in an update on Friday.

Let's all hope that the payment due tomorrow is made on time, as I'd hate to think someone knows it won't be and has tipped off others to that inside information.  

If you look closely, you'll see that only the first 20 decimals are actually used.

When a discount is offered, it is for a minimum of 1.0%, and the relevant units will be purchased first. You're just not looking at the right time(s). Maybe when deal flow increases further, some loans will no longer seem attractive with a 1.0% discount, and potential buyers will wait until a larger discount is offered...