Archives for October 2013

Recent Listings Filter

October 24, 2013 by Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

I found something the other day as I continued on my quest of self-picking notes that has helped immensely. LendingClub has a filter for ‘Show only recent listed loans.’ This is only valuable if you login during the note releases (6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. PST),but it definitely helps to get some high grade quality notes before they get fully funded.

The currently filter I am using is:

Show recent listed loans
Term: 36 months
Interest Rate: C,D,E,F,G

During the release I then filter by % funded and add the top loans that are funded to my cart. Then, I review the loans and decide whether or not to keep them. It seems like there have been enough notes that I haven’t had any issues depleting my available cash. I’m not sure how long they have had this filter, but thought it was worth mentioning. Is anyone else using this filter, feel free to provide any insight in the comments!

Ryan’s Portfolio (10/2013)

October 18, 2013 by Ryan Lichtenwald 3 Comments

Yes, it has been a long time since I’ve had a portfolio post, but rest assured my account is alive and well (growing too). I’m about 6 months in from when I first started purchasing notes and I still have yet to see a note go late (no notes currently in grace period notes either!).

Below you will see my portfolios which will better help you understand my returns. When I first started, I did not pick higher grade notes in order to maximize my returns. Eventually, I started digging more into the third party tools and used interestradar and p2p-picks almost exclusively to pick my notes. Now I am back to hand-picking high grade notes for now.

Finally, here are my returns:

I am still very happy with the returns and will continue to add to my account.

P2P-Picks Update

October 16, 2013 by Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

I knew that eventually changes would be coming to p2p-picks and I would no longer be able to select “top” notes for free during the feeding time. That time has come… I received this email from Bryce Mason on October 3. (owner of www.p2p-picks.com)

Dear Subscribers,

We’ve been working hard to address some of your top questions during the last few months, and are excited to share news that will dramatically improve your P2P-Picks experience. For detailed information you can read further, but in brief we are:

* Enabling technology to let you consume our picks automatically.

* Discontinuing our website-based picking process.

Your top request has been to combine our rigorous research with the ease of automated investment. The popularity of P2P lending, as I am sure you are keenly aware, has almost made automation a necessity. Consumption of loans occurs so quickly that it has resulted in a frustrating user experience and an inaccurate billing system on our end. So, while P2P-Picks cannot directly make purchases for its subscribers, we are changing our delivery system to solve these issues and give you options.

Toward this end, we have developed an application programming interface (API) that can fetch picks and receive usage statistics for billing purposes. This will allow software developers a way to integrate our picks with their automation solutions. By reporting actual usage back to us, we will also be able to generate accurate bills. We are making our API available to developers so that you will have choices about how you use our service. Further, we have already initiated partnership discussions with most major P2P account management application providers. Automation and the eventual initiation of paid subscriptions unfortunately require dismantling the web interface that you’ve been using for the last year, but overall this should be a major improvement in your P2P-Picks experience.

Our first partner, Blue Air Solutions, owner of www.bluevestment.com, is in the process of linking its account management software to P2P-Picks. In short order, subscribers of both platforms will be able to have a completely managed solution for their LendingClub accounts! We wanted our beta users to hear it first, but a broader announcement is forthcoming.

As always, we welcome your feedback and hope you find our service useful.

Yours Sincerely,

Bryce Mason, Ph.D.
Principal
P2P-Picks, LLC

It appeared that for awhile p2p-picks was still working, but I have not had any luck using it the last 2 days. Temporarily, I am trying to look at newly listed notes during the release times and grabbing high grade notes. I am considering a subscription with interestradar as Brian has already done for note selection. We will be sure to keep everyone updated on how we are investing in notes. I have seen a significant increase in loan availability so it has been pretty easy to stay invested.

Enjoy this post? If so, join our email list to get all of our great content sent right to your inbox. Plus, receive a FREE COPY of our Lending Club eBook.