Bank & Finance Watch - English - Comments

Welcome to BarCampBank's community

fredericbaud — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:54:50 +0000

Hi Steve,

Welcome to BarCampBank's community!

Maybe we'll meet at the next BarCampBank SF early next year http://barcamp.org/BarCampBankSF2.

There have also been rumours of a BCB in Los Angeles. Anyhow, I think you'll find the community a friendly and energizing place to share with other members.

Frederic Baud

BarCampBank - P2PVenture
My blog

Thoughts from the ZEO

Steve Rabago — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:44:39 +0000

Thanks for finding us. We are excited about our testing and upcoming launch. I look forward to keeping in touch with your members and readers.

Zimpley yours,

Steve Rabago

ZEO

I think the Business Model has many flaws

fredericbaud — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:45:06 +0000

I'm not really confident in this kind of business models. The basic of my reaction is some form of belief in what is called market efficiency. But more particularly we have, as you mentioned the questions of "how much past performance assure future ones", then you have the agency problem "if I'm good at picking companies, why should I share the info and not benefit first hands".

Frederic Baud

BarCampBank - P2PVenture
My blog

you don't believe in that?

Nicolas — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:09:56 +0000

I think it is a good idea. The only issue is in the quality of their algorythm. If once they crawl their database of winning portofolio they can come out with stats like: We created a portofolio that has a 70% chance of going up 5% or more in the two coming weeks they can sell that info. The questions are :

- who do you sell the info to (Broker, Bank, people...?)

- if someone is good at predicting the market today, those it show is going to be good tomorow?

Nicolas

bot drupajo7296

Sam Rose — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:27:15 +0000

I'll bet that it is a bot, or a spammer....

Sam Rose Social Synergy Web Weblog

Is drupaj07296 a bot?

fredericbaud — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:04:00 +0000

Hello drupaj07296,

I'm not sure I understand the comment. Is this the action of a bot?

If we keep receiving this comment and we don't really understand why, I'm afraid we'll have to ban this account from posting.

Frederic Baud

BarCampBank - P2PVenture
My blog

time

drupaj07296 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:04:24 +0000

Sorry, it is test. Now is 17 October 2007, 11:45:15

Forward to the Past?

fredericbaud — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:45:28 +0000

I remember having seen a tv show on a similar type of company at the top of the bubble. The idea then was to let people play and put the orders of the best players (even having them knowing bragged the founder). Don't remember the name of the company, probably not many do.

Frederic Baud

BarCampBank - P2PVenture
My blog

P2P Lending overcrowding

fredericbaud — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:28:03 +0000

There is apparently a wealth of new sites on the subject, which can cause concern for the viability of most of them. Then, we do not have yet a real demonstration of the viability of the business model. We know that this can work with Zopa and Prosper, but don't know yet if this is sustainable. Interesting times anyhow

Frederic Baud

BarCampBank - P2PVenture
My blog

P2P Lending explosion

Sam Rose — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:19:40 +0000

there seems to be an explosion of p2p lending sites and entities. I wonder what will emerge from this? I wonder if they'll suffer from the same default problems, and low ROI for lenders that Prosper appears to be suffering from?

Sam Rose Social Synergy Web Weblog

Wikinvest: see also...

Sam Rose — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:52:29 +0000

Also, check out http://mashable.com/2007/08/07/wikinvest/

Sam Rose Social Synergy Web Weblog

Avida, NetLogo

Sam Rose — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:48:00 +0000

They are working on AVIDA right over here at Michigan State University

You know, I've one some models with very simple agent based modelling tools, like NetLogo, that have made some amazingly accurate predictions about things, like wealth distribution, hoarding vs. spending and/or sharing etc You can use surprisingly simple tools to test models, so long as you can see Simple Rules in complex data sets. It is the simple rules that make predicting complex behavior possible

Sam Rose Social Synergy Web Weblog

More about algorithms

jzanti — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:17:00 +0000

Gordon Gekko makes way for trading software

30 May 2007, NewScientist.com news service, Robert Matthews

BRAD BAILEY was visiting the trading floor of an investment bank in New York City when he first noticed it. As a former Wall Street trader, he should have felt at home amid all the screens, phones and bustle of billions of dollars in trades. But that was just it: there wasn't any bustle. In fact, there were hardly any traders. "You could hear a pin drop," he recalls. Then it sank in: machines had taken over the role of people and computer servers don't make any noise.

There's a quiet revolution happening all over the financial world. Gone are the days of Gordon Gekko lookalikes screaming obscenities and dumping a loss-making stock onto an unsuspecting market. Investors have realised that the processing speed and sheer volume of trades a computer can make can help them to outwit the sharpest of dealers. As a result, they are investing heavily in what has fast become an arms race between investors. Their goal is to develop the best "algorithmic trading" systems - software that helps decide which trades are the most profitable, and then does the deals. Ten years ago, algo-trading was almost non-existent, but according to a recent report by Bailey, now at the Boston-based consulting firm Aite Group, one-third of all trading decisions in US markets are now made by machines. He predicts that by 2010 more than half will be done this way. At Deutsche Bank in London, over 70 per cent of a category of foreign currency trades, called "spot trades", are now carried out without human intervention every day. All this will have an impact on more than just high-rolling investors. Even if you don't own any shares you can bet that millions of those owned by your pension fund are already being bought and sold using "algo" trading techniques.

Evolutionary Algorithms

jzanti — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:14:00 +0000

Evolutionary algorithms now surpass human designers.

28 July 2007, NewScientist.com news service, Paul Marks

CHARLES DARWIN's theory of evolution has been the source of much controversy since its publication in 1859, most recently involving the intelligent design (ID) lobby in the US. Now the theory is fuelling another debate, although for once the battle lines have nothing to do with religion.

Instead of pitting God against science, the emerging spat centres on evolutionary algorithms (EAs), which mimic the processes of natural selection and random mutation by "breeding", selecting and re-breeding possible designs to produce the fittest ones.

Ripple pay: P2P money

Sam Rose — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:14:10 +0000

Thinking about how Ripple Pay could be a payment option in a P2P money system

Sam Rose
Social Synergy Web