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Post by chris on Apr 3, 2014 10:21:16 GMT
Another observation, if the algorithm just blindly applies the "buy if current holding < target" rule, it will be constantly trying to top up repayment loans as the capital is paid off. That's fair enough I suppose, it's the logical application of the rule, but something to be wary of. It'll certainly test the allocation algorithm as all those forgotten mandates start fighting over a shrinking pot! On a related note, is the "Max % of loan" based on percentage of capital outstanding or percentage of the original loan amount? This is correct. Phase two will allow for more complex strategies such as defining the target as a percentage of the loan total so that it auto adjusts on the way down. The max % of loan is based on the percentage of original principal amount, although it would actually be fairly trivial to adjust it to be a percentage of the remaining principal. I may just do that as a quick fix for those wanting this feature. I've changed it so that max % of loan is now powered off the outstanding principal balance of the loan.
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Post by chielamangus on Apr 3, 2014 10:38:54 GMT
Just noticed this thread and returned to the AC site to find out more - nothing! Is this new feature currently available to a select few? Where are the details? And why is this development not announced on the AC site?
The vast majority of investors do not visit this forum (or at least have not registered with it) and it seems to me that the official AC site should be the place for announcements, with a link to this forum if anybody wishes to follow the discussion. Actually, I have not found any direction on the AC site to this forum so how do the majority of investors know of its existence?
I started off with FC and it was only when there was a Hoo-Ha over the closing of the "independent" forum that I realised there WAS an alternative forum, and that is how I arrived here. It now appears to be the main channel of communication between investors and AC (& Ratesetter and Wellesley, for that matter) so I believe most investors are missing out on information. You could argue that that is their lookout - a Google search would show up this forum. But most investors are limited in time and knowledge (we ARE called "the crowd" with all its connotations of ignorance) so developments concerning any P2P platform should appear FIRST on the platform itself. And every platform should have a link to this forum if they are going to use it to communicate to investors.
Well, that's my tuppenceworth for today!
Actually, not quite. Went back to the AC site again and diligently searched and noticed an Auto invest heading which had insinuated itself into one of the menus. No highlight, no announcement, nothing. Obviously a tool for those in the know. God knows when it appeared. If anything deserved an announcement on the site, this was it.
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Post by chris on Apr 3, 2014 11:05:12 GMT
chielamangus - a mailer was sent out a few days ago announcing the feature would be launching soon. Completely agree that our official communication channels can be improved, and this is an active internal project for us. New help sections for the site are being written and as part of this we'll be documenting new features as are released. Everyone should be able to use the auto-invest feature now. If you view a loan it is visible as a new panel on the right hand side. This forum is a valuable place that we're happy to support. There is an argument that we should have our own official forum, and that may happen at some point, but we're firm believers in supporting lenders freedom to interact and discuss everything with each other without censorship (unless the minimal rules of this forum are breached) and therefore we will always be active in this forum whilst we're welcome. It's a great resource for lenders.
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Post by badger on Apr 3, 2014 11:10:55 GMT
Another observation, if the algorithm just blindly applies the "buy if current holding < target" rule, it will be constantly trying to top up repayment loans as the capital is paid off. That's fair enough I suppose, it's the logical application of the rule, but something to be wary of. It'll certainly test the allocation algorithm as all those forgotten mandates start fighting over a shrinking pot! On a related note, is the "Max % of loan" based on percentage of capital outstanding or percentage of the original loan amount?
So a 'capital + interest' loan will behave like an 'interest only' loan as far as the lender is concerned.
As mentioned in a previous post, AI will need to be disabled before money can be withdrawn - I hope that there will be a global enable/disable option so that you don't have to go back in and redo all your settings after you've withdrawn the money
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unmadem
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Post by unmadem on Apr 3, 2014 12:15:24 GMT
chielamangus - a mailer was sent out a few days ago announcing the feature would be launching soon. Completely agree that our official communication channels can be improved, and this is an active internal project for us. New help sections for the site are being written and as part of this we'll be documenting new features as are released. Everyone should be able to use the auto-invest feature now. If you view a loan it is visible as a new panel on the right hand side. This forum is a valuable place that we're happy to support. There is an argument that we should have our own official forum, and that may happen at some point, but we're firm believers in supporting lenders freedom to interact and discuss everything with each other without censorship (unless the minimal rules of this forum are breached) and therefore we will always be active in this forum whilst we're welcome. It's a great resource for lenders. The forum is great but I think you are doing yourself an injustice by not having an announcement on your front page of such a large enhancement (or a new more detailed email on launch). There has clearly been a huge amount of effort to get here and a bit of self promotion on the Assetz web site is called for.
Also the amount of debate here shows that there are a lot of questions which the thousands of users who don't visit here will have as well. It would have been more helpful to have a FAQ section available from day 1. I don't consider an IT development finished till the user documentation is also completed. There is no doubt our questions will highlight more which would need to be added to help text though. I suspect there will be quite a few who won't fully understand and end up accidentally selling some holding are things are not clear (text changes mentioned earlier will help).
As an aside the email sent a few days ago directs you to the videos of the lender event for more information but they are no longer available for some reason, which is a pity. Can we get it back ?
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Post by chris on Apr 3, 2014 12:19:35 GMT
As an aside the email sent a few days ago directs you to the videos of the lender event for more information but they are no longer available for some reason, which is a pity. Can we get it back ? The videos are re-appearing on this page which also helps document some of the new features: www.assetzcapital.co.uk/how-it-works/new-features/
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:20:30 GMT
I might be on the wrong thread here but, if I go to loan A AI page, I already hold £1000, I want to buy £100 more, if I set advanced setting to only tick buy & put £100 in the box, will AI buy me that £100 when it becomes available? Chris already has explained that if you already hold £1000, want to buy £100 more, and set advanced setting to only tick buy & put £100 in the box, nothing will happen. But I'll add that if you fail to use the advance setting to only tick buy you'll find that a few seconds after you confirm that change £900 of your holding will be placed in the AM -- and probably disappear instantly! So do be careful.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:22:11 GMT
Is it possible to put loan parts up for sale and withold them from Auto Invest? If not can this be added, please? Why would you want to do this?
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:25:47 GMT
Good job I emptied my account paying a shadow bill so didn't end up selling when I wanted to buy! How would emptying your account prevent AI from selling your loan parts? (When you referred to 'emptying', did you mean of available cash or of loan parts?)
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:30:57 GMT
Perhaps wherever it says "Target", it should say "Desired Holding". Sound like a good idea to me. And can someone explain why the "sell" option is available on AI? Is it to sell when a loan you have bids in goes to draw down? It doesn't make sense at any other time does it? I see it as an alternative way to reduce your holding of a particular loan by lowering your target. But it's no easier than selecting £XXX of loan parts to sell.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:33:09 GMT
Finding out which units are currently for sale from your account is awkward and cancelling the "for sale" units by having to set an un-advanced AI rule to your desired holding is also awkward. It looks like in the future, all buying and selling on the AM is going to be via AI so the "My Account/Your Auto-Invest Mandates" table needs to have "Current Holding" on it so we can tell if the AI is working or will activate soon. My thoughts as well.
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TFTO
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Post by TFTO on Apr 3, 2014 12:35:22 GMT
Is it possible to put loan parts up for sale and withold them from Auto Invest? If not can this be added, please? Why would you want to do this? I do not like the idea of Auto Invest / Auto Bid. Others may share my view and would prefer to do some due diligence on any loans for sale on the AM (thinking of last week) rather than just pile in and purchase something which they setup on Auto Invest months ago and which may not be quite as attractive - heading for administration, profits warnings etc. Just a thought.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Apr 3, 2014 12:48:28 GMT
Good job I emptied my account paying a shadow bill so didn't end up selling when I wanted to buy! How would emptying your account prevent AI from selling your loan parts? (When you referred to 'emptying', did you mean of available cash or of loan parts?) I meant emptying my account of available cash. And .... I meant to say "didn't end up buying" when I wanted to settle a bill with that money. And anyway I hadn'r realised at that point that the sell possibility was there. So my post was totally incomprehensible anyway! 
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 12:51:17 GMT
Another observation, if the algorithm just blindly applies the "buy if current holding < target" rule, it will be constantly trying to top up repayment loans as the capital is paid off. That's fair enough I suppose, it's the logical application of the rule, but something to be wary of. It'll certainly test the allocation algorithm as all those forgotten mandates start fighting over a shrinking pot! So a 'capital + interest' loan will behave like an 'interest only' loan as far as the lender is concerned.
As mentioned in a previous post, AI will need to be disabled before money can be withdrawn - I hope that there will be a global enable/disable option so that you don't have to go back in and redo all your settings after you've withdrawn the money
You can only increase your share of a loan if someone else sells their parts, so I'd think the chance of AI topping up your holdings as principal payments are made is pretty slim. If you sell some parts in order to make a withdrawal, I think it's unlikely that AI would reinvest the money before you could withdraw it unless you've set a high desired holding on a loan where underwriters are still selling off parts. Once the underwriters are out of a loan, relatively few parts come to the AM, so there won't be a lot of activity. And even if AI did buy some parts with money you were intending to withdraw, you could always put the surplus parts back onto the AM and turn them back into cash quickly -- unless they're parts of still-underwritten loans. I think we need to be careful when using AI on still-underwritten loans, as those parts will be hard to dispose of until the underwriters have exited. If you want to let cash build up in your account so that you could make periodic withdrawals, then having a 'global' AI on/off switch would be useful. With no AM fees, however, you could let AI invest any spare cash -- if there are opportunities -- until you decide to make a withdrawal, and then just sell some parts and withdraw. But you do have to be careful not to acquire parts of loans that are difficult to sell.
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Apr 3, 2014 16:16:21 GMT
Why would you want to do this? I do not like the idea of Auto Invest / Auto Bid. Others may share my view and would prefer to do some due diligence on any loans for sale on the AM (thinking of last week) rather than just pile in and purchase something which they setup on Auto Invest months ago and which may not be quite as attractive - heading for administration, profits warnings etc. Just a thought. I can see the logic of this but, unfortunately, it would mean sellers taking action for the benefit of buyers, and action that is more likely to decrease the demand for what they are selling than increase it. Most sellers would prefer that any parts they put on the AM are sold sooner rather than later, so I doubt many -- any? -- sellers would exercise that option if it existed. I take that back. I can see one class of seller that might want to use this option. And that is someone who is trying to sell their loan parts to a specific buyer. (I think there has been mention of transferring loan parts to spouses.) It used to be possible to do that with the buyer poised to buy at the instant the seller listed the parts, but that option no longer works. But I understand AC are willing to make such transfers manually if the relevant people ask them nicely.
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