Lending Club Data Changes Cause 3rd Party Tool Headaches

Screen Shot 2014-06-20 at 5.31.52 PMThere has been quite the discussion brewing over on the Lend Academy Forum about a recent change from Lending Club. I think it’s important to point out this recent change as they affect some of the third party tools that I feature on the blog. In a nutshell, the change is that instead of tools being able to constantly get up-to-date data from the CSV file right at release time, it is now only updated once every minute.  For those that don’t know what a CSV file is, it is simply a text file which includes organized data - in this case all of the available loans. You can read other forum member’s thoughts here.  What does this mean for third party tools? In the case of P2P-Picks - a lot.

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Penny Notes: A Detailed Look at an Innovative Strategy for Lending Club FOLIOfn Investors

Note: This is a guest post from New Jersey Guy, who currently only invests through FOLIOfn - the secondary market for Lending Club.  He implements several FOLIOfn strategies, some of which he outlined in his last posts (4 part series) on Peer & Social Lending.  This is a continuation of the post from Lend Academy about his penny note strategy.  Below New Jersey Guy gives a little more detail into this particular strategy.  Please keep in mind that this information is not investment advice,  just the opinion and perspective of one investor.  Thanks to New Jersey Guy for another fantastic guest post!

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Prosper Automated Investing with Nickel Steamroller

I recently got to a point financially where I was comfortable investing with Prosper.  I wanted to be able to compare the two platforms as well as diversify my peer to peer lending investments across both Lending Club and Prosper. As an added bonus, you get to follow along as I report on my returns and learn how I invest with Prosper.  Since I have no interest in hand selecting loans, it was a no brainer for me to automate with Nickel Steamroller - which is currently free. If you’re interested in automating your investing with Nickel Steamroller, please be sure to contact them and let them know I sent you.  They also offer automation with Lending Club and in my opinion are the number one resource for peer to peer lending analytics. In my next post, I plan to outline more in detail my thoughts on investing with Prosper, but for now here is my latest video on automating my Prosper investing with Nickel Steamroller!

You can check out and subscribe to the Peer & Social Lending YouTube channel here

Lending Club Automated Investing vs. Third Party Automation

getinlineLast week, Lending Club announced that their form of automation formerly known as Lending Club Prime is now simply called “Automated Investing.”  I’ll start by stating that I have never used Lending Club Prime or their version of Automated Investing.  However,  I think it is important to write about the major differences are between Lending Club’s Automated service and the third party tools that I have used.  I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments if I have missed or overlooked anything.

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I went on vacation last week, but my Lending Club account didn’t (How I invested $1,000 in less than 1 week)

Ryan VacationIt wasn’t until last week until I truly appreciated the fact that my account was fully automated.  I used to think automation wasn’t necessary. After all, I’m a software developer by trade and usually have my laptop within reach during the 4 pm or 8 pm CST note release times.  However, last week I went on a road trip to South Carolina and camped along the way down south - not conducive to managing a p2p lending account that isn’t automated.  I tried to coordinate a significant amount of capital (it’s all about perspective people) being invested while I was gone and see how long it would take to invest. [Read more...]

Meet Ryan - Passive Income and P2P Lending Investor, Blogger

ryanlakeI think it’s important for readers to get a sense of who I am when they read my posts.  I don’t want to be an anonymous blogger - I want to get out there and interact with readers and others in the industry.  This is the main reason I decided to attend LendIt this year.  In the past year, I have learned a lot about personal finance and eventually found my way to p2p lending. When I first invested in p2p lending, I blindly selected notes to invest in.  This is in part why this blog exists today - to give me the best chance at solid returns (through education) while helping others along the way.  Over the last few years, I have realized that my goal is to create multiple sources of diversified passive income through investing.  I’ll outline the start my pursuits and how p2p lending fits in with my goals below. [Read more...]

Lending Club Filter Strategies and One Benefit of a Smaller P2P Lending Account

I have been reading recently about other blogger’s strategies when it comes to Lending Club filters.  I wanted to write about another technique that I utilize, which is creating filters that are restrictive based on how much you need to keep invested.  Having a smaller account means that I don’t need to open up my criteria as much as others do.  In the long run, (provided loan availability stays consistent) I should be getting even better returns. [Read more...]

Nickel Steamroller 2.0 Released!

nickelsteamrollerlogoBack in December, we featured our Q & A with Nickel Steamroller in anticipation for the new version of their site.  If you haven’t already heard, Nickel Steamroller released version 2.0 a couple of weeks ago which includes a great amount of analytics for p2p lending that regular Nickel Steamroller users have been accustomed too.  One big change you will notice is the addition of Prosper analytics.   [Read more...]

P2P Lending Diversification and Portfolios

There are many strategies in investing in P2P Lending, several of which were outlined in our last series of posts by New Jersey Guy and his experience with FOLIOfn.  You should note that those 3 strategies were just a taste of the secondary market and there are some very dedicated people out there who are trying out all sorts of strategies.  Just hop on over to the Lend Academy Forum and I’m sure others could teach you a thing or two.  I’ve heard New Jersey Guy mention diversification within peer to peer lending investments several times and it is something I now realize I knew nothing about.   [Read more...]

Using FOLIOfn to Maximize P2P Lending Returns – Part 4

This is part 4 of a series of guest posts from New Jersey Guy who is an active member on the LendAcademy Forum.  He is located in New Jersey as his name suggests so he is not currently able to invest in notes directly through Lending Club.  However, he has decided to share his secrets on investing in FolioFN - the secondary market for Lending Club.  This is the last post in the series to help investors break the mold for better returns with Lending Club.  Be sure to check out the other posts if you missed them. [Read more...]