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FundingSecure (FS) in Administration
New Loans (FS)
Mar 10, 2016 21:39:40 GMT
Post by Financial Thing on Mar 10, 2016 21:39:40 GMT
FS provides a great lesson in not buying more than one needs in hopes you would be able to sell on the SM. 35 pages of discounted to par loans now.
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 9, 2016 12:26:02 GMT
I would suggest looking at S&P Index funds (I love the U.S Vanguard Total Stock Market offering). It's low fees + dividends make for an excellent long term buy. Some of these other "exotic" investments are akin to gambling. Look at funds with long track records (20 years plus). Stay away from anything with a fee higher than 0.25% annually. IMO putting your cash into an Index tracker (not FTSE) is a pretty safe bet as long as you buy regularly to cost average (meaning you buy during bad and good markets to offset the swings) and don't watch it during bad markets (your emotions will tell you to sell at the wrong times). The OP does not give his/her age. This is good advice for anyone under 40, even older depending on anticipated retirement date. I am in my mid 70s so cannot afford to take such a long view, and I expect that optionstrader will agree that his suggested strategy is a gamble in the short run. Agreed, this strategy is 5 years minimum.
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 9, 2016 0:35:15 GMT
I find it hard to believe people would invest for only 9% as it presents incredible risk. There are similar US companies paying 15% for same asset backed offering fundrise.com/reits/income-ereit/viewI believe the use of the word bond maybe giving people a false sense of security
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 9, 2016 0:24:40 GMT
In the past the question has been asked what percentage of available cash is held in P2P. I want to look at it from a different perspective. During this year more and more of my 5 year fixed rate bonds (6-7%) are maturing, and so far I've been putting the proceeds into a spread of P2Ps. However, the more I put in the more nervous I get as the % in P2Ps is growing rapidly. My question, therefore, is this: In the interests of diversification and given no need for immediate access, what other investments do people have which provide a reasonable return? By reasonable, I mean at least 4% (and at that level it would have to be really safe) and preferably higher. I would suggest looking at S&P Index funds (I love the U.S Vanguard Total Stock Market offering). It's low fees + dividends make for an excellent long term buy. Some of these other "exotic" investments are akin to gambling. Look at funds with long track records (20 years plus). Stay away from anything with a fee higher than 0.25% annually. IMO putting your cash into an Index tracker (not FTSE) is a pretty safe bet as long as you buy regularly to cost average (meaning you buy during bad and good markets to offset the swings) and don't watch it during bad markets (your emotions will tell you to sell at the wrong times).
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 9, 2016 0:15:07 GMT
The price of any traded fixed interest instrument will generally move in the opposite direction to interest rate. From now interest rates have practically no room to fall so can only go up which means that values will fall. Some bonds can be kept to term to avoid a capital loss if you do not require access to the funds. Possibly true but also income rises to offset short term value drops. Interesting read explaining this: insights.schwab.com/fixed-income/investing-bonds-looking-bonds-vs-bond-funds-now
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 4, 2016 13:14:03 GMT
I wonder who was on the list of letter recipients?
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Post by Financial Thing on Mar 3, 2016 0:15:50 GMT
This should make you feel better I'm -691.52% NET : imgbox.com/OrdMJZOP Rebs is way ahead in the running for my biggest P2P Investing failure.
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FundingSecure (FS) in Administration
New Loan Glut??
Feb 29, 2016 16:46:38 GMT
Post by Financial Thing on Feb 29, 2016 16:46:38 GMT
The loans that have ,so far, fallen short on funding are all property loans. I looked back over my first 100 repaid loans and only 3 were property loans. The reason that I signed up with FS was to diversify away from property into smaller more easily disposed of items. Perhaps they need some sort of consolidated/portfolio loans (as do MT). As an investor I would rather invest in a platform with a property loan where I get my interest monthly. Seems it's hard for a p2p platform to grow putting loans up smaller loans, so naturally they moved to property since bigger loans means bigger fees. I feel the same way as you however, but I vote with my wallet. I have stopped funding the property loans and now buy lots of jewelry bits on the SM at par or below (if they are newly funded).
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 27, 2016 18:26:39 GMT
I imagine the stall of the SM has resulted in the slowdown of the new loans being filled. Personally I can't sell out of some existing loans to reinvest in the new ones. Hopefully fundingsecure will take a look at how the SM could be improved as 26 pages of par SM loans indicates the SM market isn't effective. Imagine if people couldn't sell out of existing SS investments to diversify, growth would stall in the same way.
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 25, 2016 19:46:31 GMT
I like the simplicity of the existing design and it seems to me that most people agree. I vote you stick with what you have and improve it by adding additional info. / features. Maybe work on the SM which I find to be a pain.
Platforms seem eager to change what's already working fine (Property partner for example) which I know to be costly and I'm not sure why they do it. I don't think you need to go down the same road.
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 24, 2016 21:27:09 GMT
MoneyThing Can you the mysterious Dr. Shuang add the LTV's on the My Loans / Live Loans page? Maybe reduce the Expected Interest or Interest Received columns width by abbreviating the text if space is an issue?
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 24, 2016 16:51:15 GMT
Does anyone know whether the SM actually has any activity these days? The number of parts for sale keeps growing -- there are now 726 parts for sale -- and the parts I've watched on the first page don't seem to be changing much, if at all. Selling at a premium must be rather dead at the moment -- there are 139 parts being offered at par now. I'd guess that the implications of the tax situation are starting to sink in, killing most individuals' incentive to purchase any part that was activated more than a few days ago. And there must not be that many companies and non-taxpayers wanting to buy 'used' parts. I expect it won't be long before the only way to shift anything reasonably quickly will be to sell at a discount, and the people willing to do that will be limited to higher-rate taxpayers, those needing to extract money from their account, and people trying to avoid the risk of defaults. While there may not be a lot of investors in the first two categories, I suppose there will be plenty in the third. A couple of days ago there were several pages available at par, yesterday they were all gone. Today more available at par. So yes I think there's activity.
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 22, 2016 17:21:29 GMT
I'm not sure it is fair to single out SS for that particular criticism. The same point could be made about any P2P provider. The winning formula I was referencing is the one to attract and retain new lenders - something they have clearly excelled at. I think SS's model is particularly risky. It is paying lenders interest from day 1 and it is offering a provision fund as well, all of which must come out of the spread between what it is receiving from borrowers and the already high headline rate of 12% paid to lenders. It is hard to see how SS is managing to source enough borrowers in the face of competition from cheaper lenders/platforms, but it won't be by being picky. My guess is it's probably paying top commissions to introducers as well. When there is a downturn in the property market I expect the emperor will be found to be wearing very few clothes. Just my opinion, of course. Anytime one takes high interest debt out on real estate, the risks are very real. I speak from experience. Everything boils down to SS and the quality of their underwriting. If they are slack, investors could be in real trouble if a downturn occurs. I've trusted some other platforms underwriting and have been gravely disappointed. Yet to experience this with SS but highly prepared that it could happen. Just so many unknowns.
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Post by Financial Thing on Feb 21, 2016 16:48:47 GMT
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MoneyThing (MT) in Administration
Web suggestions
Feb 21, 2016 16:05:44 GMT
Post by Financial Thing on Feb 21, 2016 16:05:44 GMT
Afternoon, The ability to 'cancel' the sale of SM parts is now live. Kind regards, Ed brilliant!
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