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...]
Using FOLIOfn to Maximize P2P Lending Returns – Part 3
This is part 3 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. There will be 4 posts in this series that will outline 3 of his strategies that can help you break the mold for better returns with Lending Club. [Read more...]
Using FOLIOfn to Maximize P2P Lending Returns – Part 2
This is part 2 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. There will be 4 posts in this series that will outline 3 of his strategies that can help you break the mold for better returns with Lending Club. [Read more...]
Using FOLIOfn to Maximize P2P Lending Returns - Part 1
This is 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. There will be 4 posts in this series that will outline 3 of his strategies that can help you break the mold for better returns with Lending Club. [Read more...]
Lending Club adds Adjusted Net Annualized Return
Some of you may have already heard about or seen a change to your Lending Club account. Last week they added an on/off switch for adjusted net annualized return. Often times, I am met with skepticism when I tell people about my investment in Lending Club and it is soon followed by a question of my return on investment. I feel that I can now give them a fairly accurate number without having to do any math. [Read more...]
Positive Returns with LendingClub
Awhile back, LendingClub had a part of their site that stated something to the effect that no investor with 800+ notes had negative returns. They have since removed this and I had not seen any statistics that stated something similar until yesterday when I was browsing the site.
1 As of May 24, 2013, over 99% of investors with 100 of more Notes and with no single Note accounting for more than 2.5% of their total investment, have positive returns. To meet this criteria you would need to invest a minimum of $2,500 and none of the Notes could be greater than 2.5% of your total investment. The foregoing is not directed to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or investment needs of any particular person and should not be considered investment advice. You should consider reviewing the prospectus with a financial advisor prior to investing. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
This is a far stretch from the diversification they use to advertise and is certainly comforting for people with smaller accounts (like us). So the message today? Stick with investing $25 per note for smaller accounts and you *should* see a positive return. Invest in higher grade notes that are recently listed and you should see higher positive returns.
Recent Listings Filter
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!
P2P-Picks Update
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.
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Getting a piece of the pie
It has been awhile since we have had a post, but being busy has not stopped me from continuing to contribute more to my LendingClub account. There have been lots of discussion on the Lend Academy Forum* about institutional investors using automated tools to get the best of the best notes. The notes are gone almost immediately and leave just the scraps for people like you and I.
I completed putting $500 into notes using Interest Radar and have exceeded $500 into my p2p-picks portfolio. I have had some luck with logging into p2p-picks and refreshing the page constantly at the times notes are posted (just a few minutes after 6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM and 6PM Pacific Time). Once posted, I click “go” on all of the top 1% and 5% notes in hopes they are not fully funded. Usually I picked up between 3-5 each time after reviewing which ones I actually wanted to invest in. For now, I am trying to continue to add funds as I can as I don’t know how much longer I will be able to get high quality notes. I also know that Brian has had some luck with the auto-invest feature of InterestRadar.
It may eventually come to just choosing the best notes that are left using tools and custom filters based on note history. Brian and I are also hoping to have some visualizations to share soon, but are working on the technical details.
*By the way, I highly recommend the forum as there is a wealth of information from users - from people living in Folio-only states to users with varying investing strategies. If you are wanting to dig deeper into LendingClub, this is where to go.
LendingClub - The easy way to get invested
When starting investing in LendingClub many individuals choose one of of these options for getting fully invested.
#1 Used the LendingClub predetermined portfolio which gives you an estimated return
or
#2 Combing through notes based on filters and hand picking notes out.
There is certainly nothing wrong with either of these options, but what if there was an easier way? I learned about both InterestRadar and P2P-Picks and decided to sign-up. Currently, InterestRadar offers a 30 day free trial, a $9.99 monthly subscription or $59.99 for a one year subscription. Alternatively, if you have less than $10,000 in your account (like me), you can email them at [email protected] to receive a limited-time discount. P2P-Picks is still in beta so for the time being you can sign-up and enjoy free access.
P2P-Picks is very straight forward with two options to invest:
- Loss Minimizer (Loans with the lowest modeled risk, regardless of interest rate.)
- Profit Maximizer (Loans expected to have the biggest reward for the risk.)
Simply select the option you want to go with, choose the note size and press go. You will want to make sure you are logged into LendingClub so the notes can appropriately to your oder.
InterestRadar has several different features, but for simplicity sake we will focus on the Strategy Shop for now. There are different strategies listed to choose from, some of which are shown below:
Simply click on the strategy you are interested in (provided there are available loans) and you will be taken to a screen where the notes are listed. From here you can view some of the details and invest in the notes if you are interested. One of my favorite columns is the LC Hype/IR Hype which allows you to get an idea of the popularity of a note. If you don’t see notes in the desired strategy, try looking just after 6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM and 6PM Pacific Time. There is much more available with InterestRadar, but this should at least get started.
I currently use both of these tools to find loans, but then I review them individually before actually invested. I have 2 separate portfolios setup for each product so I will be sure to keep the results up to date.
What is your favorite tool or favorite feature of a particular tool? Interested in us featuring your third party tool? Contact us!