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Messages - DutchNurse

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Investors - LC / Grace period needed after first payment
« on: November 24, 2013, 12:00:00 AM »
Well whats the chances this one comes back with going into grace period after one payment? Similar stories out there? Interestingly his (or her!)  credit is trending is up.

https://www.lendingclub.com/account/loanDetail.action?loan_id=7377876
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Investing - General (not P2P) /
« on: September 21, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
Are there fine print for these accounts? Like "'must use debit card X times per month?"
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Off Topic / The Stock Market Thread
« on: September 14, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
It was suggested a another thread be created after the thread "How much is too much to invest in LC" kind of turned into a market thread.

Maybe we can post macroeconomic views, opinions about rates, and big news. This isn't the reason we are here, but I think the other thread made it clear that there is a wealth of knowledge out there which is hard to find.

I'm not sure how best to continue this thread, but, if there is enough interest maybe we can start with what we consider here to be ways to select a stock. It may be that we are only here for P2P lending, and that, of course is ok, but in case there is more interest in anything more on this topic I'll go first to spur on some conversation.

I lately make use of the screener on FinViz.com to fill my radar for 'possibles' and like to look for +current earnings, +annual earnings, +sales growth, +instituional ownship growth or accumulation. I guess in a very general overview I like to stay more or less to CANSLIM for my strategy, but i'll try own cyclicals, defensives, inflation sensitive stocks, and some interest sensitive stocks at the same time - although I am very leery about owning banks.

Currently long: CYOU, FII, GIII, GPS, HD, IBA, ITRN, LUV, NP, SGBI, SXL, TARO, TGI, TSN, UHAL, UNP, VLO, WLK, WX

I recently unloaded TSLA as I have thought for a while now that it's just too far ahead of itself.

I guess besides screener strategy and portfolio critique or comparisons, another topic for conversation could be something more along where we left off: manipulation of market metrics and is the market even a safe place anymore (and if not, where is!).

I really hate to take a doom and gloom approach to the world but are we really living a parallel of Plato's allegory, The Cave and is there any hope for humanity?   


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Investors - LC / "employment: N/A"
« on: September 10, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
Yeah, what the title said.

Tell me this response can stand for legitimately self-employed with a $4,000+ a month income and that I'm not "partners in the dream for a brighter future" with Walter White.

Next, of course, is the obvious question... just how can you be sure you make exactly 3,750 per month...

I guess I just have to trust the behind the scenes that lending club is verifying this and this guy is one of the 90% that made the cut
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Investors - LC / Questioning borrowers
« on: September 10, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
Lets talk a little about inquiries to our borrowers.

On the browse notes page, when you click to expand loan details there are a number of pre-written questions you can pose to your borrower. I've looked over maybe 500-600 loans at this point in my 'career' here, so, I'm assuredly still a noobie and haven't seen probably a large enough sample size to comment...

But, at least from what I've seen, there are very few borrowers that are even questioned by us lenders. I sort of follow a mantra of education/information offsets risk and I just can't believe that I've seen a borrower questioned about three times in over 500 loans I've browsed through

"What are your monthly expenses related to housing (rent, mortgage(s), home equity loan and / or line of credit, utilities, insurance, taxes, etc)?"

"If you are paying a mortgage, please break down all monthly housing related expenses (mortgage payment, insurance, taxes, etc)."

"What are your current debt balances, interest rates, and monthly payments by type (credit cards, student loans, mortgages, lines of credit, etc)?"

These are some of the questions (if not all of them) I'm interested in knowing.

Is it a time constraint? Most of us dont have time to ask when investing over hundreds of notes?

Much more likely, if you ask questions, is is that your probably likely to lose the note to other investors when waiting for a response? I'm guessing this is the reason there are so few questions asked?

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Investors - LC / Funds Returned
« on: September 05, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
So through investing in my first 100 loans the proceeded to enter the review processs upon being fully funded. This afternoon I had my account get refunded $25. I reinvested so on and so forth.

Now I realize this is because LC, while reviewing the loans before actual issuance, threw one of them out while fact checking.

I own ABC and E that I bought off the bat, but I have no idea which loan was axed. I like the idea of being able to track what loan was refunded to me so I can build up some statistical ideas about falsified information or rejected loans. Is there any way to see what loan was axed and the reason for this?

Probably not a huge deal...but just something I'm curious about and wouldn't mind looking over if it was possible. I certainly can't skim over my port and say "aha #47890134 disappeared!"
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Investing - General (not P2P) / Anyone investing in MLPs
« on: September 04, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
I've owned Plains All American and Terra Nitrogen on and off for a couple of years. Generally your going to see a nice yield and a somewhat higher level of stability. These are typically my holdings I think of as inflation hedging. Natural resources, pipelines etc... PAA made me about 30% earlier this year, though I am not long on it right now.

I know theres a little extra work, but scottrade just does it for me (mostly, a few things are mailed out which I bring as well if your a shareholder on occasion) and I bring the sheets to my CPA. I hate anything to do with taxes and just pay the few hundred bucks to get it done from a professional.
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General P2P Lending Discussion / "Earn 1.0% Guaranteed For 3 Months"
« on: September 04, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
I'm definitely with core. Money markets never break a buck. Your right they did in September 08, but that will almost assuredly probably not happen ever again. Ill never say never but if at happens it doesn't really matter anymore because nowhere is safe. Besides with the first positive signs of life in yield curves in a while things look somewhat positive economy wise in the next year or so here.

I'm definitely NOT saying the problems here are all fixed (har har) but breaking a buck probably will only ever have happened once in my lifetime. That said - there's a possibility we're not done seeing bubbles pop...hedge with inverse bond funds with a small portion of a portfolio.

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Investors - LC / Time
« on: September 04, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
So after spending five hours tonight on things... I finally realized I could set up a portfolio to auto select loans based on a risk profile I select.

I've read the forum for about three or four hours, and in my position I can't afford to spend too much time on these things. Ill still play for fun when I have time and select on my own, but how many of you just auto select loans off the LC site using their portfolio tool?

Honestly I feel like I'm cheating a bit here and not putting forward enough due diligence but now that I'm seeing things here.. I could easily spend more time on this than my scottrade account - I thought it to be the reverse initially. I mean I'm just parcelling out a "dipping my toes in" five grand (not sure if its kosher to discuss amounts here? If not I apologize) In 25 dollar sums it started to churn through the clock as I was concerned about each persons debt to asset ratio, credit utilization, etc..

I'm also quickly realizing this isn't stock picking, and I have power of volume behind me. Normally when selecting stocks I'm looking at a a balance sheet income statement cash flow... And this forum has made me think there is a growing trend here people can't find enough loans period to sink money into with the reading ive done... I suppose this is true after playing with some numbers because with enough loans, you'll be shielded from the default rate as your diversified I'm just used to looking tediously at fiscal health of each individual individual parcel. I seem to find plenty of a b and c ratings... Maybe the slim pickings are more towards the junk ratings?

As such, the  'automatic' feature has me feeling a little uneasy like I didn't do my best here to succeed.

I guess what I'm asking for here is a little consent on my action. Do people using automatic structuring end up with a slightly better return than a money market account? it seems like other people here use some type of automatic buying too? I would hope so or some of us probably end up with very little time free due to our LC?

Sorry if I'm getting to close to asking about gaurded strategies here, but just seeking guidance from the pros.
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Investors - LC / New to LC
« on: September 03, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
Ok guys, looking forward to gaining as much knowledge as I can! I made a thread in the introductions forum, but nows the question time :)

I'm first and foremost a stock market guy, so I have alot of ins and outs to learn here both about the platform and about the underlying mechanics, so I apologize for what could be in the future a large number of posts. I'm all about education offsetting risk, and if your kind enough to reply - THANK YOU in advance!

So coming to LC is an alternative to my money market account, so my initial idea was to invest in all A class loans for safety (matching somewhat close to a money market idea) - until I found 6.62% was significantly less after fees were taken out. Still 5% beats the hell out of any money market account I've seen in the past...Well I'm 27 so I have a short history on earth and its the best return with some modicum of safety I've ever seen. Looks like on Page 39 of the latest 10Q LC put out the default rate average for A class was somewhere around 3.5% of loans given over the past number of years. I can live with that. Still 6.02% isn't 6.02% at 'checkout'.

• So, my first question is in regard to transparency - or lack thereof as above depicted. Is there a way I can see the 'rest of the numbers' here? What is the borrower paying? Simply put - he sure aint paying 6.03% - wheres the my margin. I could do the math (monthly payment, number of months etc...) but this is going to add some time to my due diligence. Does LC present this information in quick and easy 'at a glance' way? I mean sure, the credit card companies are charging 29.99%, but what is LC giving the money out at? Just would give me a nice idea of payback feasibility.

My next question is in regards to "Review Status". Seems to me there are a fair few number of applicants even in the A range making a nice round 10,000 a month working at Office Depot. Sure, thats possible I guess, this person obviously isnt just a sales clerk at that income level and I'm not sure what the compensation structure at Company X is, but it's just ever so slightly questionable to me without income verification.

• It seems to me that with the volume of loans given out, verifying income for everyone is something of a...calculational and time consuming impasse. Can I trust some of these numbers? And to what degree? Is it possible that Joe Smith working at Office Depot with 10,000 of capital incoming each month is stating his combined income with his wife?

Next I'm a little interested in the rate of growth of LC itself. I spent a fair amount of time on the phone talking to LC, and it sounds like the their accelerating growth at a respectable clip since first hanging up their shingle. Leads me to wonder just how this is happening. Eventually I would think a 'push' to increase number of loans issued would me quality of borrower would drop. Does LC do all its borrower marketing online? Have the requirements to meet A, B, or C changed over the years and how would I find this out? (Still driving through the 10Q and 10K's so I apologize if the information is in there yet).

Thats all for now!
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Introductions / Introduction here to learn
« on: September 03, 2013, 11:00:00 PM »
I'm a 27 year old guy looking to diversify some of my current money market funds. Looking forward to sharing experiences and learning anything I can from the community!

I went to school for chemistry and then nursing and until now have been invested through scottrade in the stock market for about 7 years now. I got a minor in economics and mostly have taught myself REAL investing by reading books (intelligent investor, what works on wall street, all of Peter Lynch's books so on and so forth).

For about five years I've done pretty decent in the market but recently I got married and am looking to simplify some of my investing. Stocks can be very energy intensive constantly watching things, and this seems to be somewhat more like a park and churn operation after the due diligence.

I loved this idea the moment I heard about it on CNBC about a half year ago and have been reading up since - this is helping people who are being murdered by credit card companies and making myself some money at the same time - I love the whole operation, a win-win.

I'm young so instead of having all of my dormant funds money market (some of which will stay right there), I just opened an account that'll be about a hundred loans large after the next few days and looking forward to seeing this work.

Again, I'm looking forward to being a part of the community and sharing knowledge from everyone! Who ever started this forum - props to you!
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