SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Mar 15, 2016 17:19:12 GMT
As a simple workaround for those in strange time-zones or with restrictive jobs, you could perhaps add a statement to each new loan along the lines: "If you are concerned you may be unavailable to bid at the time this loan launches, please email us and we will be happy to place your bid for you (up to the bid limit and provided you have sufficient available cash)".
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Post by bracknellboy on Mar 15, 2016 17:19:24 GMT
just feels to me that at the moment its a solution looking for a problem. With current balance of loan sizes, lender base and bid limits, any problems are currently 'edge cases'. Fine tuning of initial bid limits can solve most of those. KISS.
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Post by reeknralf on Mar 15, 2016 17:47:11 GMT
I don't believe that posters on this forum are typical p2p investors. My impression is that many have quite a lot of leisure time, which is perhaps why they're posting. This allows them to get in on fastest fingers loans, so they don't want pre-funding which would allow the likes of me to get a look in. This is fine while demand exceeds supply, but locking out a pile of investors looks a lot less clever if the supply of loans increases, as has recently happened on FS.
That said, if the pre-funding doesn't get used on popular (smaller) loans, I can't see it achieves much. If the prospect of transferring money in and then out is a problem, this could be automated. You bid £1000 on a loan. If you only get £500, the other £500 is automatically sent back to your bank (if you so wish).
All the talk of KISS, if it ain't broke..., just smacks of people (understandably) pushing for a system that gives them an advantage. Of course, my motivation isn't selfless either, but, is it a good idea to put-off less-leisured investors just because you don't currently need them to fill loans?
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Monetus
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Post by Monetus on Mar 15, 2016 17:53:27 GMT
Another vote for "keep things as they are" currently.
Loans seem to be filling gradually due to the sensible bid limits. There are usually parts left over come the end of the 24 hour restriction which would suggest that everyone is getting pretty much what they are looking for the majority of the time unless I am missing something? I certainly don't see a large number of investors suggesting they are missing out on MT compared to SS for example....
This may change in the future but for now I'd agree that adjusting the inital bid limits depending on loan size (0.5% - 2%) would make sense.
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littleoldlady
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Post by littleoldlady on Mar 15, 2016 18:05:45 GMT
Thank you for all your feedback so far - really appreciated. I will keep this thread open for discussion for a while longer, however it appears that we perhaps will shelve this for the time being. In the meantime we will work on the 'multiple bids up to the bid limit' & the 'auto-renew' features. Kind regards, Ed That would be a shame. Although several people have said they see no need for it, nobody has actually come up with any objection to it. If MT are prepared to do the IT work, and not at the expense of other preferred projects, then it can only benefit people who actually work for a living (unlike me!)
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treeman
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Post by treeman on Mar 15, 2016 18:13:19 GMT
I can't see any real reason to change anything at the moment - the bid limits currently give a wide time window of opportunity to get a bit of new loans.
It's good to have some ideas for future use though; the balance will no doubt change at some point.
Agree with the requests to facilitate manual top up bids within the first 24hrs too.
As others have said, MoneyThing is about the only platform that people don't have (mostly legitimate) gripes with, so there can't be much wrong!
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locutus
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Post by locutus on Mar 15, 2016 19:30:43 GMT
I'm obviously in a minority but I really can't see the benefit of the current system for anyone. Why restrict bids to a certain time (16:00pm) and restrict the amount people want to lend. I would have thought that fewer restrictions would make the platform more attractive to more people and ideally a few big hitters. More big hitters will allow MT to finance bigger loans, provide more SM liquidity and make the site more attractive to new investors. I really don't get the desire to impose arbitrary restrictions when they hinder the platform.
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woodie
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Post by woodie on Mar 15, 2016 20:18:01 GMT
Multiple bids in first 24hrs up to limit but otherwise everything seems fine.
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Mar 15, 2016 21:15:21 GMT
I'm obviously in a minority but I really can't see the benefit of the current system for anyone. Why restrict bids to a certain time (16:00pm) and restrict the amount people want to lend. I would have thought that fewer restrictions would make the platform more attractive to more people and ideally a few big hitters. More big hitters will allow MT to finance bigger loans, provide more SM liquidity and make the site more attractive to new investors. I really don't get the desire to impose arbitrary restrictions when they hinder the platform. Bids are NOT restricted to a certain time; MT's sensible bid limits mean lenders can generally bid whenever they like in the 24 hours after a loan launches. And deep-pocketed lenders are free to bid for as much as they like AFTER the first 24 hours, once smaller lenders have had an opportunity to bid for a reasonable amount. Seems entirely fair to me, but then I'm a smaller lender.
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jonah
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Post by jonah on Mar 15, 2016 22:05:58 GMT
A few points.... the number of positive comments for the status quo at the start of this thread, is broadly to be expected. They are after all by people who were online at that point in time (close to the normal bidding time) and therefore potentially able to bid. No issues with that, turkeys and Christmas etc, but it does give a potentially none representative sample and view. Another point which has been raised is that the challenge for a lender isn't the bigger loans. Those tend to last close to or more than 24hrs. The maximum bid working well. Potentially a tweak to 2% or even 5% as suggested elsewhere for the very largest. Personally I wouldn't suggest more than 2% due to the BH issue. The challenge for a lender looking for diversity is the smaller loans. These are the ones which go quickly and therefore could potentially benefit from a process tweak. Going to 0.5% has covered a lot of this issue, but there has to be a lower limit on how much, if any, further that can be tweaked down. Having the suggested above 'pre bid' for these, with allocations then assigned by say midday for 80% of the total loan could work. People, based on a email on their allocation, would be able to transfer the exact cash needed to the platform. This reduces the 'please return cash' issue which I expect could be rising. Any one who doesn't transfer in time, simply gets their allocation added to the 20% released at 4pm. Not KISS I admit, but a way to balance up smaller loans. Is something like that (other variations) needed? I leave that one to Ed and his team. A review of the time taken to sell out of smaller loans could help there. I recall some stats being posted but don't recall if they were from before the 0.5% tweak. personally I would use this or something similar to help with diversification, which in turn would help me put more on the platform as a whole. But I am a quite small player in the scheme of things. Last point... Having the ability to bid multiple times up to the 24hrs limit on the website as suggested above would also be a welcome feature
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paulg
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Post by paulg on Mar 16, 2016 1:40:15 GMT
Hi Ed,
My initial thoughts are what problem is this trying to solve? Is this to help you see demand pre go-live, to help us lenders and remove fastest finger or to reduce the need for lenders to log in at certain times? I m not sure the last two are big enough problems at the moment to warrant a change like this? (The latter two which I have highlighted) Ed, I think the pre-funding proposal you've come up with is a good model and I would have no objections to it and would happily use it. But I have no need of it because I can be on here any time. However, I appreciate that not everyone has that time luxury so I can understand why some investors would like to have a system that didn't favour time-rich people, or tie them to a certain launch time. But - as others have pointed out - there really isn't a problem for anyone time-wise with the larger loans as they last for many hours, and so it would only be of benefit for the smaller loans which you are not proposing to use it on. If you did use the system on the smaller loans with an 80% cut off point this would then lead to a race to pre-fund with complaints about the timing of the emails, unreceived emails etc., so all-in-all I don't see it helping your highlighted objectives. It's good to see you always striving to please your investors, but I think you have a good and fair system now with the 24 hour bid limits, and I don't believe that it's possible to have a system that pleases everyone all of the time. With more of the larger loans now coming through which outlast the 24 hour bid limit there should be enough investment opportunities for everyone. Maybe when both the number of investors and the deal flow have greatly increased then some changes will become necessary, but I don't think we're there yet. When that time comes just please don't be tempted to introduce INPL!
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 16, 2016 2:41:04 GMT
MoneyThing I agree with the sentiments of pre-funding not needed at the moment. Maybe put the sinister Dr. Shuang to work on getting rid of the nasty scroll bar on the Pending Loans page and adding the LTV % on My Loans table Otherwise, I'm a happy camper as is.
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davex
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Post by davex on Mar 16, 2016 5:20:04 GMT
For me the current system works well. in the past an email to those helpful things have ensured I've got my purchase in during the initial 24 hrs ( I was traveling and was due to have no internet access) . On another part I actually bought less than I intended, but again an email got it topped up. The flexibility of MoneyThing is one of the reasons i am investing in them. See no reason to automate.
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Post by reeknralf on Mar 16, 2016 8:51:20 GMT
There's a fairly obvious internal inconsistency coming from some 'I'm aright as is thanks' posters. If auctions really are currently available for 24 hours, introducing pre-bids would not lead to partial allocations.
It's fine to vote for the status quo because it benefits you, though I don't see why fastest fingers is 'fair', and by omission, partial allocations are presumably less fair. What is not fair, is to claim auctions are available for 24 hours when they are not. Several of the Broad Oak listings have been listed mid-morning, and filled by mid-afternoon.
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Mar 16, 2016 9:06:47 GMT
I've not kept a record but I don't think any new auction (as opposed to renewals) has lasted less than 24 hours since Ed reduced the bid limit on smaller loans to 0.5%. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
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