Hello Friends! Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice! As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisers prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.
It is late here and I wanted to jot down a quick note on Covestor and Prosper.com, and Kiva.org. These are websites (Prosper and Covestor) that I have gotten more involved in over the past few months, and one (Kiva.org), that I would like to publicize. They are quite different but all three are worth a visit.
First Prosper.com. Prosper is the person to person loan program that involves an eBay type auction of bidders bidding on loans. This is rather high risk and the interest rates are accordingly high. Yet it is possible to limit your activity to AA or A rated applicants (Prosper screens applicants for credit-worthiness) and by spreading out your loans to multiple individuals, you can hopefully reduce your risk and maximize your return. I currently have $200 in four loans outstanding with an average interest rate of 17.98%. I have one $50 loan not quite cleared at 15%. I will keep you posted on how these work out.
Until the end of the year if you join Prosper, you will receive $25 to start off your loan process. If you only add another $25 and loan it out...it is well worth the effort imho. (Full disclosure, I also will receive credit for referring you to Prosper, but after you visit, even if you don't participate, I am sure you will find the entire thing fascinating!).
Next thing Covestor.com. This is an amazing website that tracks actual trading portfolios. You can visit my Covestor Page if you are interested in seeing how a third party evaluates my actual holdings as measured from June 12, 2007, when I signed up shortly after Covestor became available to the public. I do not receive any money or credit for plugging Covestor. I do this because it helps me evaluate my own performance and understand how each of my holdings is doing. Covestor is relatively available to the public. However, I have been assigned 5 invitations (I recently gave one out to a Stock Picks reader). If you are interested in one of the remaining four invites, please feel free to email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com with your name and email address and I will send you the appropriate information to get you started.
Finally, while I also love to make money, I would like to interest you all in Kiva.org, a website designed not to make any money at all, but to provide loans to third world individuals trying to get a start in life. While we may individually profit from all of our trades and investments, others need the smallest amount of help to make a difference. Visit Kiva.org and see what great work they are doing!
Bob