Well, if the overall market tanks, LC is likely to double-tank, so at least this short exposure offsets some systemic risk from the rest of your portfolio. It's definitely a multi-year play. I might wait for a bout of good news and then get in. It's rare for an individual investor to obtain essentially a customer satisfaction survey like this thread.
I feel bad dancing on their grave. I liked the business model. Lend to people at rates lower than banks and get paid higher than bank interest. I viewed it as high-interest bond investing.
I filtered by purpose, long employment history, low utilization ratio, low DTI, etc. I only invested in A-C. I was very non-risk tolerant when it came to this platform.
It was fine for a long time. I remember what a punch in the gut my first default felt like. I felt like "how could they do this (the borrower)?" But, I persisted for years. I dumped more and more money into it through the Roth IRA because it still seemed like a good investment overall in my portfolio. It was never over 10% of my portfolio.
Then, I started noticing lots more defaults and the rates were much higher. Why would a good borrower borrow from LendingClub if they could get the same or better rate from a real bank? They wouldn't, right? Ergo, sub-prime, in my opinion.
The whole thing looks like a house of cards to me now. I'm glad I took the hit and liquidated last year and got my money out to Vanguard, even though Trump has tanked the market since then with his trade war. I have long-term hope in the US/Intl stock markets that I no longer have in LC.
Again, I hate to dance on their grave, but the company as it is now seems beyond saving to me. I'm worried the people currently invested don't know what they really own. I hope I'm wrong.