Boost your returns or cut your debt with Peer to Peer

The weekend is the time to review where you are with your plans. This week I am looking at my social lending or peer to peer portfolio, The internet has brought about many changes to our lives. Not least is the fact that you can now do your banking 24 hrs per day via the internet. At the same time you can also get a better savings rate or a loan. Traditionally to get a loan you went to the bank. Now it is possible to get a loan from people in your community, from people you do not know, and without the use of a bank. The concept of social lending via the internet in the UK began with the website ZOPA. Zopa is an accronym for Zone of Possible Agreement. The Zone is a concept that in simple terms, refers to an agreed range of offers at various interest rates and amounts, equal an agreement to lend. Complicated, yes, but do not worry too much about it. Let me explain. Miss Borrower wants to borrow £5000. She uses a social lender. The social lender credit checks and grades Miss Borrower. If ok, she is allowed to advertise that she wants to borrow. The website, does not lend her the money, we do. Her loan is made up of lots of different small loans funded by individuals are able to offer lump sums at different interest rates. As of today there are a number of social lending websites. The largest and most established is ZOPA. If you are looking to borrow money, and do not want to use a bank, look at a social lender as the rates are competitive. If you are looking to invest, look at Ratesetter or ZOPA as they have protection funds in place should a borrower default. If you want to take a look at peer to peer, please use my referral links. Thanks. Ratesetter

Holiday Trading

August in the news media world is often called the silly season, and in the share trading world, volumes of trades are lower and prices can be more volatile.  I'm still on holiday, but I'm never far away from the I Pad, so as normal I am keeping an eye on things.  Tomorrow CPP are announcing their half year results and I am currently holding a lot of shares.

Trading in CPP has been volatile.  A month ago they were priced at less than 5 pence, and they have climbed to 38 pence, before dropping back.  Two weeks ago I bought 5000 shares at 22p and sold at 32p a few days later. However a day later I bought at 33 pence, tried to sale at 36 pence but couldn't get a firm quote.  Big mistake, they dropped down to below 20 pence. I'm hoping that good results will cause CPP to surge allowing me to reduce my positions whilst taking some nice profits.

I'm also keeping an eye on Greka Drilling. GDL.  I've traded GDL on and off since last Autumn.  On one day I bought and sold three times in 2 hours as the share was having a volatile session, making me a few hundred pounds.  Some weeks later I bought 10000 shares and watched the price drop in half, wiping out my profits!  I still have the shares and this week I reinvested and bought just over 3000 shares at about 14p.  I've set them to sell at 18 pence making about £100.  That's a days pay on average, but as the shares are in my Self Invested Pension Plan I can't get the money until I'm 57!

Summer Holidays

Well it's the summer holidays and we are currently away in Cornwall.  We started the week, waking up in The Manor House, near Okehampton.  We spent the weekend there, enjoying every opportunity to have a great time.  The Manor House is an all in one complex where you get three meals a day and a whole package of activities from Art and Crafts to sports as part of the deal.

We left there on Monday to stay at our secret get away place in Cornwall.

Well it may be the holidays, but the markets are open so the week started with a sell of my CPP shares.  I bought some last week, and sold them on Monday to bag about £50 profit.  Not a massive profit but CPP is currently a volatile share.  Then on Tues I bought back at about 22p, and set an automatic trade at 28p.  What a day.  The wife and I went to St Ives, and visited The Tate, St Ives. We were sat in the Tate having lunch and watched the share climb up to just short of 28p and then it fell away to about 22p closing.  Damm, I missed a sale opportunity! However the view from the restaurant was fantastic!

Also topped up on GDL at about 14p, within my SIPP.  Have set these to trade at about 18p.

CPP climbed again on Wednesday, only to fall back ahead of Thursday results. I also noticed ADT dropped from 145p to 117p.  No idea why, but If I had the cash I would have jumped in.  Shame, it recovered 1o pence.  Would have been a nice deal!