November 28th, 2008 — , Lendingclub, News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Just talked to Rob from LendingClub and they have agreed to extend the $25 sign up promotion until the end of the year. The offer is valid only if you sign up through the following link here.
Continue reading → LendingClub Promotion extended till end of year
November 19th, 2008 — , Lendingclub, News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Just wanted to let everyone know that the kind folks at LendingClub are offering a $25 sign up bonus for new lenders for the month of November only exclusively through lendingstats.com. If your interested click here to sign up. (Thanks Rob)
I have checked out their site and here are some comparisons to Prosper:
Borrowers are screened [...]
November 17th, 2008 — , News & Updates, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Prosper recently added a new loan status Defaulted (PaidInFull). These loans will be grouped under the Paid loan status instead of defaults. (I think this status encompasses loans that were in the charge-off status but were fully paid).
The nightly update is patched to reflect these changes as of today.
November 6th, 2008 — , News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Prosper recently charged off numerous loans. These loans were not sold to a debt buyer and are technically still in collections. However, they are effectively defaulted so we’ll categorize these loans under the Defaulted (NAT/Charge-Off) category.
Non-update related: Fred93’s blog. Always found his posts to be very insightful so hopefully by mentioning it here, it will [...]
October 15th, 2008 — , Investing, News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Prosper just suspended lending in order to create a secondary market for loans. (Essentially an exchange where you can buy/sell loans without waiting for maturity). The details for the new market place are found in an old blog post here.
“Prosper intends to charge all selling Lenders a nonrefundable resale listing fee of $0.25 per Note [...]
October 2nd, 2008 — , Investing, News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
With the recent financial mess I couldn’t help but think about how true this quote is. Here we are on the brink of financial armageddon and we’re held hostage by the finance industry of this country. As a result, congress has to passed a 700 billion dollar bailout plan to get the credit markets rolling [...]
September 29th, 2008 — , Investing, News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Today’s drop in the US equity market is going confirm the idea of a recession in the minds of many Americans. Hopefully your sitting on a substantial pile of cash that you can invest with in the coming months and year. If the government and the Fed have their way we’ll get inflated out [...]
July 24th, 2008 — , News & Updates, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
This update fixes/enhances a couple of front end issues.
Renamed “Defaulted - Repurchased” to “Defaulted - NAT” (NAT = New Agency Test Loans). These loans were previously picked up through an automated script, however Prosper has now recategorized them as Defaulted. Per user request, we have hardcoded these loans as “Defaulted - NAT”. (this in no [...]
July 20th, 2008 — , Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
It’s always interesting how the odds are always stacked against the small investor.
Consider the following scenarios: (oversimplified, but it’s to make a point)
- Family buys a home speculating that the price would increase. They put 20% down on a 500k house and get the other 80% as a mortgage. (effectively they are buying the house [...]
July 13th, 2008 — , Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
On my current trip to China I noticed that inflation is running rampant here, in fact it’s a lot worse here then in the US. Wages, food prices, etc. are all going up.
For instance, a bag of cement which was selling for 12RMB (about $1.75) last year is now selling for 36RMB currently. (The earthquake [...]
July 10th, 2008 — , News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We just fixed a slew of bugs including a particularly irritating one that affected account creation and changing your account information. Sorry about that. If you notice any more bugs, please help us out and report them to <Turn on JavaScript to view our email address>. Thanks for notifying us of this issue. (Asparagirl, Jess)
June 6th, 2008 — , Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
If you haven’t been keeping up oil spiked $10+ today and is looking to close above $138/barrel today. Kind of hard to miss this since I can’t find a news site that doesn’t have this on their front page as a headline.
So what are the supposed reasons for the spike?
1) ECB probably going to raise [...]
June 1st, 2008 — , News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
This update takes care of a lot of loose ends from the previous release as well as a long awaited ROI update. Once again, thank you for all your feedback.
Lenders in some cases will notice a significant drop in their estimated ROI. This is because of several tweaks made to the ROI calculation including:
Repurchased loans [...]
May 28th, 2008 — , News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We are aware of the watch list problems and we are working to correct the problem as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who reported the issue to us. If you notice any other problems, please email us at <Turn on JavaScript to view our email address>. Try to be as specific as possible in [...]
May 6th, 2008 — , Tutorials from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The watch list is one of the most useful tools on the website. It allows you to track what other lender’s are bidding on as well as track what your friend’s are doing.
You can use a watch list to:
Create an aggregate watch list profile consisting of multiple lenders.
Track multiple lenders and see what [...]
April 30th, 2008 — , News & Updates, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Hi everyone,
This update took a little longer than usual because it contains a significant amount of changes. Sorry about keeping you waiting 
If you notice any bugs please shoot an email to <Turn on JavaScript to view our email address>. We’re still going through all the feedback that’s accumulated, so give us some time [...]
Continue reading → LendingStats Accounts, Extended Credit Data, Watch Lists & More
April 17th, 2008 — , Investing, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Stumbled across this little gem from the Fed today. The map shows breakdown of mortgages by state, city and zip code. You can use it to check out how your area is doing.
The thought that came across my mind was to avoid lending to areas with the most problems. I compared the mortgage map [...]
Continue reading → Map of Nonprime Mortgage Conditions in the United States
April 2nd, 2008 — , Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
This is probably old news to most people, but if you haven’t been keeping up with the markets lately, Bear Stearns is being acquired by JP Morgan (with the help of the Fed). Under the deal JP Morgan is essentially risking $1 billion dollars while the Fed is putting up $29 billion dollars of [...]
Online StoresFebruary 20th, 2008 — Investing, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Some recent events if you haven’t been keeping up:
Light Crude closed above $100 today.
The market is pricing in a 50 basis point rate cut by the Fed in March which will drop money market rates to around 3%.
Widespread pessimism in the housing market and subprime mortgages.
This actually looks like a better time to invest money [...]
February 11th, 2008 — Investing, Lendingclub, Prosper, Zopa from LendingStats @ LendingStats
I’m currently sitting at my computer and CNBC is interviewing Renauld Laplanche from LendingClub about peer to peer lending. They also mentioned Prosper and Zopa in a text blurb at the bottom of the screen. Prosper should get themselves an interview on CNBC. In other news “AIG said it would need to alter the way [...]
February 6th, 2008 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We’ve updated our contact information to better address your requests. We’re still transitioning from our old email address, so please resend your emails to our new address if we don’t get back to you within a few days. Thanks, and keep the feedback coming.
Here are the highlights of what’s changed in this update:
Added a Bid [...]
Online StoresDecember 8th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We added a couple of new features as well as the usual assortment of bug fixes and interface tweaks. If anything doesn’t work as it should, please let us know. Thanks for all your feedback!
Added a new page called Loan Map which allows you to view Prosper loans graphically on a map.
Added “friendly” URLs. For [...]
November 20th, 2007 — Investing, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Prosper said a few months back that they were going to tackle collections and try to improve collection rates (Prosper Tackles Collections). It now appears that Prosper has been keeping their end of the bargain. Penncro collection rates have now improved across all credit grades from around 12% in August to 14% in November.
I think [...]
November 5th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Prosper recently introduced a new feature on their system called Portfolio Plans. It essentially is a set of standing orders to help lenders invest based on their tolerance of risk.
Some thoughts came up after seeing this and hopefully everyone reads the footnotes like me. If you haven’t here they are:
“Estimated average annualized loss rate [...]
November 4th, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
“Ambac Financial Group Inc. and MBIA Inc. shares fell, along with other bond insurers, as Morgan Stanley said the industry may face a “downward spiral” and Goldman Sachs removed its “buy” rating on the two companies.”
“Zerbe said a worsening of defaults on mortgage, home equity loans and credit card balances “could prove to be the [...]
November 1st, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The stock market is barely off it’s highs for the year but it feels like we’re in the start of a bear market. (As of the close today the S&P is roughly 4% off it’s highs this year). There is going to be more pain it seems as I doubt the Fed can negate the [...]
Continue reading → Equity Markets: Something Just Doesn’t Seem Right
October 31st, 2007 — Investing, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
It appears Prosper is planning on setting up a secondary market in the near future to allow lenders to buy/sell notes. You can find the details on the S-1 registration the company filed yesterday.
“Prior to the date of this prospectus, the Notes have been non-transferable except by assignment to a collection agency upon default. As [...]
Continue reading → SEC Filing By Prosper Hints At Secondary Market
October 19th, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Bumped into this article today. It gives a pretty good summary of the whole subprime fiasco in housing that is happening lately.
“In March, less than a year after the issue was sold, GSAMP began defaulting on its obligations. By the end of September, 18% of the loans had defaulted, according to Deutsche Bank.” Junk mortgages [...]
October 18th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Added an audit page for the Estimated ROI. You can now click into the Estimated ROI on the Member Profile pages and see how the number is being calculated.
Updated Average Loan Age Weighted to include Paid/Defaulted loans. This will affect the Estimated ROI for older portfolios (boost up in ROI).
Updated the chance a Late will [...]
Continue reading → Estimated ROI Update & New Customization Features
September 30th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The number of active lenders on Prosper took the first dip ever in September. (An lender is active if he/she made a bid in that month.). If your an active lender on Prosper this is probably good news for you since it means less competition. On the other hand the number of active [...]
September 29th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
I was playing around with the customization on the lender profile pages and came to the conclusion that the best credit grade to invest in is C.
How did I come up with this conclusion?
1) C credit grade of lender portfolio’s seems to return the highest ROI.
2) AA, A, B borrowers tend to have their rates [...]
September 28th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
A number of things have been added in this update. Here are the highlights:
- The Lender Breakdown page has been updated and renamed the Lender Overview page. You can use this page to get an overview of lender ROI.
- Added an “Active Lenders and Borrowers” chart to the Prosper Membership Growth page. (Steve)
- The “Customize” [...]
September 20th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
From the Prosper September 2007 Newsletter:
“Prosper is pleased to introduce our new VP of Operations, Doug Fuller. Doug brings 25 years of experience to the Prosper team and will be instrumental in helping our team crack down on delinquencies and ramp up our collections efforts. We are excited to have Doug on board; he will [...]
September 7th, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The Jobs Report today was the weakest in 4 years, instead of the expected addition of jobs we actually got a small reduction. If you add up all the pieces next year is not looking good.
1) Housing Downturn
2) Credit Market problems
3) Slowdown in job growth
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070907/wall_street.html?.v=25
September 6th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Just got an email today that Prosper will be eliminating all group rewards for group leaders on future loans. I think this is a huge step in the right direction since under the old format groups were not providing any useful functionality at all except to increase costs for Prosper, borrowers and lenders.
This should actually [...]
Continue reading → Prosper Is Removing “Group Rewards” (AKA Group Fees)
August 29th, 2007 — FAQ, Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
A few people have inquired about how the “Consensus Rating” is being generated on the Listing Picker page under Lending Strategies. The idea behind the Listing Picker is to identify listings bid on by lenders who have good estimated ROIs. The more lenders with good ROIs the higher the consensus rating becomes.
The formula that generates [...]
August 26th, 2007 — Rants from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Thought this was amusing.
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.
“Well, then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.
The Mexican explained that [...]
August 24th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
So I logged into my Prosper account today and found that my standing order had actually won a bid today. I have had this standing order running for 3 months now and it has only placed 5 bids with this the only winning one. This is telling me that either the listing quality on Prosper [...]
Continue reading → Listing Quality Improvement Or Less Competition?
August 18th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Slowly getting back on track. If you have questions/comments please post a comment or shoot us an email. We’re still sorting through the mounds of email that’s accumulated the past month, so if you feel your request hasn’t been addressed in a timely fashion, feel free to send us a follow-up email.
As requested, a Lend [...]
August 15th, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Mmm thought this was interesting. I think the last time we had anywhere near a 10% correction was 4 years ago? I’m sure some stat guy will come along and give the exact number of days.
If you look at the latest COT report, the little guys (retail investors) have been bullish this whole ride down.. [...]
August 14th, 2007 — Prosper, Tutorials from LendingStats @ LendingStats
I was looking through the forums today and decided to write a quick guide for new lenders. Hopefully this will save new lenders time and money.
1) Don’t invest in HR rated loans.
You will lose money in them. Here is a month by month breakdown of HR loans and delinquency rates. HR Delinquency Rates
2) Do [...]
August 13th, 2007 — Prosper from LendingStats @ LendingStats
I was going through some of my old saved searches for Prosper and noticed that they were returning a lot of results. I’m not sure whether the quality of the listings have improved or that lender’s have gotten smarter. Listings are not getting bid down to absurdly low rates now and are starting to look [...]
August 12th, 2007 — Investing from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Recently there has been a lot of news out lately about the sub-prime market. For those that don’t know what’s happening, loans made out to sub-prime borrowers in the last few years are starting to go delinquent at a high rate compared to what the rating agencies such as Moody’s and S&P were projecting. This [...]
August 7th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We’re back after a longer than expected hiatus. We apologize for the delay between updates. There’s a saying that things happen in threes, well, in a perfect storm of sorts, our web programmer needed to take a leave of absence last month. Between that, the Prosper data changes, and our backend changes/server migration, we’ve been [...]
July 30th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
We appreciate feedback from our visitors. It lets us know where we have to improve and helps shape the direction of the site.
One of the things we noticed when reading through our email feedback was the amount of useful information submitted by our visitors. Many of your questions, concerns, and comments were broadly applicable to [...]
June 20th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Just a note on the lack of Prosper data updates lately. Prosper made changes to their data export format and we’re updating our calculations to account for them. Unfortunately, it’s taking longer than usual because the changes were made without prior notice to 3rd party sites like ours and came at an especially bad time [...]
June 2nd, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Added a Listing Profile page, this allows you to look up listings older then 365 days. You can get to this page from the Loans List page by clicking the ListingID.
Added a Loans By State page, you can see how loans perform by state now.
Modified the Historical Loan Performance page. You can now filter by [...]
May 4th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Added a customize section to the Total Loans Funded page. You can break that page down by credit grade, DTI, etc. (Got the idea reading through pninen’s Late Loan Statistics thread on the prosper forums.)
The Time Left column has been added to the Active Listings and Listing Picker pages.
Fixed a bug where a borrower’s loan [...]
April 25th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The charts and graphs have been updated on the site.
The Membership Growth, Total Loans Funded and Listing Overview pages have been updated.
The full group name has been added to the group profile page.
A loan count filter has been added to the Group list page. (thisguy)
A Bid History chart has been added to the member profile [...]
April 10th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Added a new lending strategy that looks for borrowers who have invested in Prosper. The idea is lenders who have invested a significant amount into Prosper are more likely to repay their loan. You can find the Borrowers Who Lend page under the Analytics Section.
April 8th, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The group profile pages have been updated to mirror the member profile pages.
The (NoGroup) group has been added. This is simply a group comprised of all borrowers who are not part of a group. A lender can use this as a benchmark to compare group performance. (pninen)
Active Bids column has been added to the Lender [...]
April 3rd, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
The Active Listings page has been updated and the customize section has been added to it.
You can now find a list of Repeat borrowers on the Active Listings page. A repeat borrower is a borrower who has previously taken out a loan and repaid it. (Robert)
Tooltips have been added throughout the site, you can now [...]
April 1st, 2007 — News & Updates from LendingStats @ LendingStats
Loss rates are going to be calculated using exponentiation instead of multiplication. (pninen)
Default sale rates will only be calculated for defaults due to delinquency. Bankruptcies will have a 0% resale value. (DCS)
Fixed a bug on the member profile pie chart where the colors were displayed incorrectly for portfolios with 100% lates/defaults. (leporello)
