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Post by sunspot on Feb 23, 2016 18:53:48 GMT
I find the irregular size of loans parts to be rather annoying, but the tiny shrapnel that floats around is just silly, and needs to be dealt with. In the short term, that's not easy, but it would be straightforward to change the way loans are traded so that the problem eventually goes away.
Personally, I think £50 or £100 should be the norm for the smallest loan parts for sale. But £30 would also be sensible, insofar as it would yield interest at 1p per day (most months). £20 and £10 are possibilities too, but even though I've included £1.00 in the vote, I strongly believe this is too small.
There is also the matter of residues to consider. For instance, if the smallest loan you could sell is £30, but you have £50, that would leave £20 behind. However, while acknowledging this problem exists, I suggest we skip over it for now.
On a related matter, it seems to me that it should be possible to merge loan parts at the start of each month (when interest is effectively zeroed). This would simplify things somewhat.
I would also like to see the way interest is displayed changed significantly. At the moment, in order to work out how much is due at the end of the month, it's necessary to visit the tax page, and deduct the last value, then work out how much is due each day for the rest of the month, and add this amount to the running total at the bottom of the page. Overall, that's far too complicated, and it only gets worse, for that's the simplest scenario.
Instead, it should be possible to see how much interest in predicted at the end of the month, and also how much was earned in each previous month. It should also be possible to see how this breaks down (by loan, and by loan part).
All this information presumably exists in the database, so it's just a matter of making it accessible. What do people think?
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cooling_dude
Bye Bye's for the PPI
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Post by cooling_dude on Feb 23, 2016 19:01:25 GMT
From my own point of view, I would be happy if it was capped at £100, but I have voted £1. This is because when I was testing the water, I invested £500 and I know of others that did the same, so any larger cap would be inconvenient. Likewise for so-called micro investors.
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Post by highlandtiger on Feb 23, 2016 19:04:14 GMT
Unfortunately you havn't considered how people will reinvest their monthly interest payments if you have a minimum of say £100. Unless people have more than £10k invested in SS, their monthly interest payment will be less than £100 and unless they add money to their account they wont be able to reinvest their interest. But I have to say, if things ain't broke, then why try to fix them. No one is forcing anyone to buy these pieces of shrapnel. To me this is another thread wanting change for change sake. I'm voting for £1, only because you havn't got a penny option.  |
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Post by wiseclerk on Feb 23, 2016 19:05:24 GMT
No need to change it. Currently it is possible to invest everything up to the last penny.
So all money is at work earning interest.
Much better than the cash drag that would be caused by any size of minimum bid.
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Feb 23, 2016 19:07:28 GMT
Why does it "need to be dealt with"? What is the problem with parts being denominated in pounds and pence? If you don't like penny parts, or even individual pounds, then don't buy them!
I'm certain that SS have rather bigger priorities on their to do list (especially having seen the current pipeline!)
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beechside
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Post by beechside on Feb 23, 2016 19:12:46 GMT
You haven't given my option - no minimum - so I cannot vote. You do need to include the status quo, rather than force a change. Q: What's the minimum number of people you want to bury in concrete? Select from 1, 2, 3 or 4. (You get the idea) Yes, I agree that the shrapnel is untidy but it's hardly inconvenient. Simply buy in the units you want and sell the same. Remember that you get pence in your monthly interest so what are you going to do with the coppers? Leave them as odd pence or withdraw them? Both seem just as untidy or inconvenient as having no minimum. By the way, if I see that there is 234.56 of a loan for sale, I just type in 999 anyway. It's quicker and easier and gives that tiny edge in the SM game. Damn, I'll just given away my trade secret  |
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cooling_dude
Bye Bye's for the PPI
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Post by cooling_dude on Feb 23, 2016 19:12:51 GMT
Yes, I must agree with the others sunspot that there is no reason to change the current system. Yes, it is rather irregular seeing those 0.01p on the SM, but if that is what people want to do with their own investments, then so be it.... I mean I can't see no occasion for me to do it, but I'd rather have the ability to sell exsacly what I want when I want to. That is the great thing about SS; once you have invested your money, the flexibility you have with it (in terms of the SM) is second to none.So I have withdrawn my vote, as you need another option; So I have withdrawn my vote, as you need another option; don't change anything... |
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Feb 23, 2016 19:13:13 GMT
Instead, it should be possible to see how much interest in predicted at the end of the month, and also how much was earned in each previous month. It should also be possible to see how this breaks down (by loan, and by loan part). The interest earned in each previous month is recorded in your Transactions register. The interest expected for the current month = capital x days/365 x 12%
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ben
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Post by ben on Feb 23, 2016 19:15:41 GMT
I do not see the need to change the amount if you want to buy the pennies then do if you do not then don't
Although your second idea is much better I would prefer that to all the loans to be shown as one , like you said at the end of the month would be a good idea but to fair to SS that might take a fair bit of programming
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Feb 23, 2016 19:28:30 GMT
No one is forcing anyone to buy these pieces of shrapnel. If you don't like penny parts, or even individual pounds, then don't buy them! Unfortunately, the only way to avoid shrapnel is by not buying anything! I have never deliberately tried to buy shrapnel, but I have bought some anyway. There have been many occasions when I tried to buy a reasonably sized part, only to find that another buyer beat me to it and I got shrapnel as a result. The usual cause of this is someone selling, for example, a £123.45 part and the person in front of me buying £123 -- because that's what the website says is available -- so I get the remaining 45p part. (I'd always try to buy £124 in such a circumstance so that any pence would be attached to my part, but it seems clear that many people do not do that.) Aside from not buying at all, the only way I can think of avoiding the acquisition of shrapnel would be for SS to allow me to set a minimum part purchase size, so if I set that to £1 in my example above I would have bought nothing at all. Which would be fine for me.
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Feb 23, 2016 19:51:52 GMT
There is also the issue that your part isn't sold until the last penny sells .. annoying at times. I'd like all the shrapnel accumulated (at the end of the month maybe), although you'd then lose details of which bit you bought when.
£0.01 parts are good for opening a 'buy' window and 'teeing up' a captcha and waiting for a bigger fish to surface. 8>.
I personally try to buy £50 and up, but as has been said, sometimes you wind up with remnants anyway.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Feb 23, 2016 19:59:43 GMT
There is also the issue that your part isn't sold until the last penny sells .. annoying at times. The good news is that being allowed to have a negative balance means we can buy back that last penny ourselves, and trigger the completion of the sale of our parts ourselves now rather than having to wait for someone else to do the job for us.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2016 20:06:02 GMT
Merging loan parts that would be a good idea, also if you could sell all loan parts in a particular loan in one go rather than clicking on each individual loan part.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Feb 23, 2016 20:11:54 GMT
... also if you could sell all loan parts in a particular loan in one go rather than clicking on each individual loan part. That would be helpful for buyers as well. With everyone poised waiting for something to appear, if someone sells ten small parts the chances are that they'll go in at least ten separate small sales, whereas if they could be sold 'en bloc' they'd probably go in a lesser number or larger sales, reducing SS's total parts count. I don't know whether the end result would be fewer happy buyers, or more. 
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cooling_dude
Bye Bye's for the PPI
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Post by cooling_dude on Feb 23, 2016 20:16:13 GMT
Merging loan parts that would be a good idea, also if you could sell all loan parts in a particular loan in one go rather than clicking on each individual loan part. I think M*****3 (@mbb13) would very much approve of your request......
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