Just a quick tidbit from my analytics in Jan 07:

Interesting.  I though IE was still dominant.  I guess not amongst my readers!!

• RateLadder.com Website Analytics for Jan 07

• RateLadder.com Website Analytics for Mar 07

• RateLadder.com Website Analytics for Feb 07

• Revolutionary Blog Contest

• LendingClub Advertisment on RateLadder — $25-$50 signup Bonus

• Internet Businesses Websites Businesses for Sale Opportunities

• Dora the Explorer Animation Characters Animation Art, Characters Collectibles

• Guess Men Discount Fragrances Store

• Guess Women Discount Fragrances Store

• Classical, Opera, Ballet Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

Disclaimer: I am not a member of any group, nor do I help or detract from any group…

The basic idea is that a lender starts a group and becomes a group leader.  That group leader maintains to group and optionally takes a some percentage on top of the lender rate.  The idea is that trust worthy groups have less defaults on average then non affiliated borrowers. 

With the recent dismissal of FAN and affiliates (one of the larger groups, the group leader was involved in a settlement order with the FTC — they have been banned from Prosper — the existing loans are going to stay on the books.), I thought it was about time I addressed my concerns, misunderstandings, and general distrust of groups. 

I expect this to be a multipart series.  I have far more questions than answers at this point.  I will try to be rigorous in answering my questions.  If you have questions on groups please add a comment and I will address in a future post. 

Here are my questions:

Why would a Prosper borrower want to join a group?

Why would a borrower want to join a group with leader rewards and therefore pay more interest?

Why would a Prosper lender join a group?

Why would a lender help a specific group over others?

What is vetting?  Does that help?

Are groups having less defaults than non affiliated borrowers?

Does a groups star rating matter?

Does a group actually help get a loan funded?

What are the interest rates for groups compared to non affiliated loans?

There isn’t enough data to evaluate expected default rates for all loans, does the star rating tell us anything?

Why Would a Borrower Join a Group? (Prosper Group Analysis Part 1)

• Security Message from Prosper Last Night: Group leader on Prosper is subject to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement

• Why Would a Lender Want to Join a Group? — Prosper Group Analysis Part 2

• Prosper Discontinues Group Payment Rewards

• Leporello Provides The Genius (misunderstood)

• My Standing Order Basics

• Veterans Groups Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Boy Scouts Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Elks Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Jaycees Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

Another listing on which I was a winning bidder was cancelled during the pre-funding verification.  While, I am trying to get money into play, I always appreciate Prosper’s due diligence in this area.

Consequently, I now have $100 available to bid on loans.  My standing orders fired as soon as the money was available and I am in a sweet non-auto-funding loan.  C credit, 39% DTI, 23% Lender Rate.  I will complete a full analysis if this listing turns to a loan.  The other $50 is still in a non-auto-funding loan. 

I will be away on a business trip next week.  I think I will get a chance to blog from my hotel, but I wont have a chance to work on the reporting section of RateLadder.com.  The loan rate analyzer works, but if more than 5 people are using at a time it wont work. If anyone knows of an unused and unwanted Crystal Enterprise 8 1 processor license that the owners wanted to sell please contact me kevin [at] rateladder [dot] com.

• Prosper Loans: Auto Funding vs Non Auto Funding During Verification

• Another Loan Cancelled Automatically by Prosper.com. Thank you!!!

• Auto-funding loans… My favorite.

• Reduced Required Rates by 0.5% for All Standing Orders with Rates Greater Than 15%

• Prosper.com Loan Listing Rates That WILL Get your Loan FUNDED

• Standing Liberty 1916-30 Quarters Coins US Coins Paper Money

• Germany Area Europe Stamps

• Italy Area Europe Stamps

• Russia Area Europe Stamps

• Paper Money US Coins Paper Money

I fund loans exclusively through standing orders. (At the moment very tight standing orders.) I like the options and flow of the current standing orders configuration, BUT there are 3 things that Prosper needs to add/change.

First and foremost, there needs to be a way to only bid on loans that are within X amount of time from auction closing. There is nothing more frustrating to a standing order junkie then having money tied up for 8 days or more only to have a gem of a auto funding loan show up and fund in 6 hours. Why can’t I say, “Don’t put money into a loan auction until the waning minutes or hours?” I understand the standing orders only fire every so often, but then it is my responsibility to pick a length of time that ensures my standing order having a chance to find loans.

Second, I would like to be able to reset the amount lent field of my standing order. I am planning on periodic interest rate reviews and at each review I would like to reset the amount lent in the past to 0.

Finally, I would like to be able to duplicate a standing order with one button click. I don’t want to search first; I have all of the criteria; and/or I am just going to change one or 2 options.

The second and third features I could live without, BUT the time remaining criteria for standing orders is long overdue. The only reason the feature isn’t already implemented is that prosper fears it would cause less loans to fund and higher interest rates. I don’t see the problem. Higher interest rates means more lenders, more lenders means more loans fund. Helping to improve my internal rate of return, by not leaving my money on the sideline would be a big plus.

• Prosper Standing Order Feature Request

• Standing Orders vs Manual Bids

• Reconsidering Manual Bids

• Fed Up with Prosper Non Auto Funding Loans and Lack of Time Left Criteria

• Automatic Prosper

• Standing Liberty 1916-30 Quarters Coins US Coins Paper Money

• King Features Animation Characters Animation Art, Characters Collectibles

• Water Features Garden D cor Yard, Garden Outdoor Living

• Fountains Water Features Garden D cor Yard, Garden Outdoor Living

• Ponds Water Features Garden D cor Yard, Garden Outdoor Living

I have just been watching my new standing orders (no adjustments yet). I have $50 that is not in a pending review loan or in loans. The Standing Orders have bid on 3 NAF loans (in the last 3 days) but been out bid each time so far. I might have my rates too high. But with only $50 on the sideline I think I can continue to be picky.

Thanks to those of you that have helped debug the loan rate analyzer. It is still not working at 100%. I have 5 simultaneous user license and it seems that as long as the page is open a user is being used. After the close of the page it takes 1 minute to clear. Not very efficient. Not sure why iframe is different than a new window, but it is.

• Prosper Standing Order Feature Request

• Standing Orders vs Manual Bids

• Auto-funding vs Non-auto-funding

• My Standing Order Basics

• Fed Up with Prosper Non Auto Funding Loans and Lack of Time Left Criteria

• Standing Liberty 1916-30 Quarters Coins US Coins Paper Money

• Cycling Fan Apparel Souvenirs Sports Collectibles

• Racing-Auto Game Used Memorabilia Sports Collectibles

• Halcyon Days Decorative Collectible Brands Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

I have decided to take RateLadder.com to the next level. Instead of having just static content, I will be launching a series of live crystal reports that run off the nightly prosper data.

The first report is the actual Prosper Loan Rate Analyzer that I use when evaluating and reviewing a loan in my own portfolio. For input it takes the credit grade, debt to income ratio, and loan amount. It looks at all loans in the last 100 days with the same credit grade, DTI +/-5%, and loan amount +/- $5,000 dollars. It returns a graph of the average interest rate by loan amount and calculates the number of loans, average amount borrowed, weighted average interest rate by amount borrowed, and the standard deviation of the interest rate. Give it a try by clicking the link earlier in the post or on the page link to your right. FYI: Prosper loans are from $1,000 to $25,000 dollars.

If you have an idea for a crystal report I would love to hear it. kevin [at] rateladder [dot] com.

• RateLadder.com Launches Standing Order Analyzer

• Loan Rate Ananlyzer Strategy Update

• Loan Rate Analyzer

• Standing Order Analyzer

• ProProsper — Professional Tools for Prosper Lenders

• Heart Rate Monitors Monitors Pedometers Gym, Workout Yoga Exercise Fitness

• Annual Reports Paper Railroadiana, Trains Transportation Collectibles

• Deals Crystal Mountain Washington Skiing Vacation

• Glass, Crystal Bells Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

• World Series Baseball-MLB Fan Apparel Souvenirs Sports Collectibles

Dear RateLadder_com,

It has come to our attention that one of the group leaders on Prosper is subject to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement order that bans him and his related companies from advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, or selling any credit-related goods or services, or assisting others engaged in the same activities.

As a result, we have terminated the Prosper membership of the leaders of the following groups: FinancialAssistanceNetwork, MinorityAssistance.org, EmergencyAssistance.org, PayItForwardLoans.com, HR-Assistance.com, CreditCardAssistance.org, and FAN-Lenders-Alliance.

Existing funded loans in these groups will continue to be active loans on Prosper and existing listings from members of these groups will remain open. Prosper will assume leadership of these groups, but will not accept new members into these groups.

We are not aware of any illegal activity in these groups on Prosper, or any irregularities with regard to any loans to members of these groups, but we are obligated to take this action in light of the FTC settlement order.

As always, thank you for your support of Prosper.

Sincerely,
Prosper Security

I found a thread in the prosper forums on the subject.

• Groups, Groups, Groups… Exploring Groups on Prosper

• Prosper Upgrade Last Night 9/13/2007

• Prosper Taxes

• Promotional Products

• Zopa Security Leak?

• Wholesale Trade Distribution Businesses for Sale Opportunities

• Trade Stimulators Casino Collectibles

• Federal Reserve Notes Large Size Notes Paper Money US Coins Paper Money

• Federal Reserve Notes Small Size Notes Paper Money US Coins Paper Money

• Trade Publications Modern Age 1980-Now Comics Collectibles

I just tried to login and got an error.  Here is a screen shot.  I will update the post if I get more info.

I posted a thread on the Prosper Discussion forums, but I haven’t gotten a response.

The site was up and running this morning at 6:30am pst on 1/18/2007.

• Prosper.com Site Down

• Prosper Update Enhances the Legal Enforceability of Promissory Notes

• My New Site Design

• Prosper Release — All Steak No Sizzle

• Targetable AdSense Experiment

• Shot Glasses Barware Collectibles

• Spools, Thread Sewing Antiques

• Thread, Epoxy Coatings Rod Building Repair Fishing

• Running Exercise Fitness

• Post-1950 Beds Furniture Antiques

I have been reading a lot about SEO lately.  It seems there are quite a few things you need to do in order to have Google think highly of your blog and send visitors.

1st and foremost is content: original, compelling, and on topic content.  While I just started my blog (December 06), I have been averaging 2 posts per day of content.  I don’t mean to toot my horn, but I hope you find it as interesting, compelling, and on topic as I do.  I have spent significant amount of time thinking about and working on posts. 

I had a minor reddit flood for my post comparing a CD Ladder to a Prosper.com portfolio. (1000 users 2000 page views.) Spent most of one day on the 3rd page. Use Prosper and get a 312% Increase over a CD Ladder for Your Emergency Fund.

I was asked to speak at a prosper days session in February: Third Party Application Showcase. This happened after I adjusted the prosper data dump to work with SQL Server 2000 and posted it on my blog.  (It only works with SQL Server 2005 by default.)

I promise to continuing posting to the blog and follow my prosper journey for at least 3 years.

Are you interested in a link exchange?  Add a link from your site’s main page to http://www.rateladder.com/.  Send me an email to kevin [at] rateladder [dot] com asking for a reciprocal link.  I am very responsive.  I am not sure if I am supposed to be picky or not, but please have a page rank (not zero) OR relevant content.

I am not an SEO expert, but if anyone out there is and has suggestions for me I would be interested.  I find the topic compelling.

• Fantasy Link Exchange

• #1 by Amount Prosper.com Lender: Pensioner

• Should I use reddit instead of digg?

• Thank You To All the Veterans

• RateLadder Is New Prosper Blog Editor-in-Chief

• Lamp Posts Outdoor Lighting Yard, Garden Outdoor Living

• Bradford Exchange Decorative Collectible Brands Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

• Collector Plates Bradford Exchange Decorative Collectible Brands Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

• Personal, Field Gear Surplus Militaria Collectibles

• Canteens Personal, Field Gear Surplus Militaria Collectibles

A new loan funded (Consolidate Personal Credit — $20,000 at 18.00%).  I participated via my standing order: Mid DTI — NAF.  Which is this loan was funded as a medium debt to income ratio and was an auto-funding loan.  The borrow had C credit and 22% DTI.  As a reminder my standing orders only find loans with 0 current delinquencies, 10 or less delinquencies in the last 7 years, and 2 or less public records in the last 10.

With this loan I have $3,350 across 54 loans ($62.04 per loan) with an weighted average interest rate of 16.03% and an account value of $3,445.31. Each loan on average is 1.8% of my portfolio. 

Here is the listing:

For the readers that believe in reading the actual description without modification:

I started my phone company, Venture Communications, Inc. with my first wife’s teacher retirement benefits after she passed away in 1995. I have done very well for myself over the last 12 years, growing a company to National recognition, amassing real estate holdings, automobiles, inventory and a multi-million dollar company annually.

I am here at Prosper looking for a loan to consolidate all of my personal credit. Please note, this is ALL of my personal credit and includes a $10K account with Kawasaki for my Mule, shown above that I bought two years ago when we had our foreign exchange student, Luigi, living with us.

I love my family and my wife, Wendy and I have a new child, *name removed*, on the way through the adoption process and so I need to get my personal debt consolidated before his arrival, whenever that may be.

Thank you for your consideration of my note.  

Here is a graph of all loans on Prosper with C credit and a DTI of 22% +/-5% and Loan Amount $20,000 +/-$5,000:

19.07% weighted average, but it is within one standard deviation (14.91% at the bottom). This loan was funded with an old standing order, my new rate for this type of loan is: 18.41%.  I will not fund a loan like this in the future. 

What do you think?

• 2 New Loans (Part 2/2) — Debt Consolidation — $20,000 at 18.00% — C Credit — DTI 23%

• Top Prosper Listing Titles Of All Time

• New Loan Funded — Purchasing commercial real estate — $10,000 at 18.00% — C Credit — DTI 23%

• New Loan Funded #6028 — $2900 in 46 loans

• Expanding Business — Pimp My Listing #4

• Credit, Charge Cards Trading Cards Collectibles

• Standing Liberty 1916-30 Quarters Coins US Coins Paper Money

• Personal, Field Gear Surplus Militaria Collectibles

• Canteens Personal, Field Gear Surplus Militaria Collectibles

• Dog Tags Personal, Field Gear Surplus Militaria Collectibles