Glossary
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This glossary includes terms and acronyms that may be found on Prosper, Prosper Discussion Forums, related third-party sites, and, most likely through the laws of probability, an occasional entry familiar to the outside world.
See Also References External Links
0/0/0:
- 0 current delinquencies, 0 past delinquencies, 0 public records. Also called a "Clean Scorex."
ACH:
- Automated Clearing House (system Prosper uses to deposit/withdraw money from accounts). This is typically used for direct deposit and direct debit.
Additional Credit Data:
- The information displayed to registered lenders when viewing a listing (a request for a loan) and one clicks on the + next to the credit score. (Now you have to click on the + only once per computer.) Note: information shown in the Additional Credit Data should be considered confidential and not posted in any open forum, not even in the official forums.
AF:
- AutoFund (sometimes also referred to as FlashFund). A loan on which the borrower agrees to pay the initial interest rate posted on the listing, rather than waiting for lenders to bid the rate down after it becomes 100% funded. Listings for such loans close as soon as they are fully funded, and are clearly indicated on the listing page with a yellow lightning bolt icon. The advantage of such a loan to lenders is that the funds they bid will usually not be tied up for as long as 10 days while waiting for the auction to finish. The disadvantage is that, particularly in the lower credit grades, an AF loan may be signaling a desperate borrower, possibly one who is already near bankruptcy and therefore high-risk. A well-priced AF loan with "good numbers" may fund and close within minutes if it triggers a large number of standing orders; thus they are often not seen by lenders who browse the listings manually.
AFAIK:
- As Far As I Know
Alan:
- A mysterious lender with exceptional prowess and resources to track and identify borrowers who list on Prosper. Alan has uncovered many potential frauds and has, in the process, engendered many controversies. The most notable of those would probably be the JessM controversy.
Bank Draft:
- A draft drawn from one bank for funds on deposit at another bank. If a borrower chooses "bank draft", essentially Prosper writes a check ("Bank Draft") against the borrower's checking account and deposits it at Prosper's bank. It is processed just as if it had been the borrower's check. This is not a check that the borrower writes.
- A prolific poster on Prosper. It's all about character and "Welcome." Big Gulp is known for his socializing and free-spending style during Prosper gatherings. At the Prosper Days convention in San Francisco he also hosts the big pre-convention party.
BK:
- Bankruptcy
Black Friday:
- March 30, 2007 when Prosper moderators suspended at least 10 forum participants and locked numerous threads on the official Prosper forums. All the threads that were locked were critical of a group known then as TwoMillionaires and now ["group_Mayans" First Choice]. Many lenders started withdrawing funds and some never placed a bid again as a result of Prosper's actions on that day. The term was coined by Rissaroo.
BLender:
- A Prosper member who simultaneously borrows and lends (some are also GLs). Some lenders frown on this practice, due in part to the relatively high percentage of such borrowers who default on their own loans, while still expecting those to whom they lend to repay their loans. At this writing, Prosper provides no mechanism for those who lend to a defaulting BLender to obtain recovery from the BLender's own Prosper loan portfolio. This term was also coined by Rissaroo.
BTL:
- Borrow To Lend
BTW:
- By The Way
CA:
- Collection Agency
Cellardoor:
- An early Prosper lender who is (was?) highly enthusiastic about the platform [but became less than thrilled with the implementation -cellardoor]. He started the Prosper Lenders Unofficial forums (now part of Prospers.org) and also the Ourtopia group in response to the outrages committed by Hi-Max and his group Utopia, which accepted all borrowers and levied fees without doing anything to earn those fees. Cellardoor vanished into the ether and hasn't been heard from since. [This was driven largely by (a)the demands of his day job and (b)the conflict he faced -- torn between love for the potential of Prosper's platform/concept, and dissatisfaction with the implementation and his inability to push for sufficient change within the system. Due to (a) and (b), he grew increasingly disillusioned and silent, and channeled his desire to "make a difference" into the less stressful/Sisyphean task of making a small number of larger, self-funded one-off P2P loans. As of late 2010, he has begun to cautiously explore the Prosper scene once more -cellardoor]
Cleavage bidder:
- Lenders who bid on listings based on the attractiveness of the featured photograph. A 70-year old unemployed man with a string of delinquencies can get funded if he posts an accompanying picture of a busty porn star in suggestive dress. Beware, though; Alan can probably identify that picture!
Community Payment:
- See CP.
CP:
- Payments made by Prosper members on a loan for which the borrower is at least a month late. Such payments are gifts (no expectation of repayment). Many lenders are concerned that this rewards bad behavior. It is possible for GLs to increase the star rating of their groups by making such payments; this practice is controversial. The total number of CP's made in a group is listed on the Group's page. Community payments are designated with a 'heart' icon on the payment history the loan.
CR:
- Credit Report
CRA:
- Credit Reporting Agency - the big three being Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Currently, Prosper retrieves borrowers' credit data from Experian and reports the status of Prosper loans to both Experian and TransUnion.
Cube shield:
- A reference to an early Prosper borrower who had several off-the wall ideas about funding and pulled a number of fully-funded listings. Said borrower is also a lender on this site, but has not been spotted on the forums since early 2006.
DF:
- Doug Fuller - Prosper’s Vice President of Operations overseeing Prosper's collections activities.
DakotaFury - A Prosper lender and frequent contributor to the Prospers.org forums.
Disputed Payment:
- While obvious, in the Prosper context can also mean that an ACH direct debit produced an error (NSF, bad account) that took longer than four days to report back that the debit failed, or a "Bank Draft" failed.
Double Daggers:
- Payments in transit not applied to current balances. The presence of daggers indicates that an attempt is being made to initiate a transfer, but is not a guarantee of a successful transaction.
DQs:
- Delinquencies
DTI:
- Debt To Income ratio. From PMI, "The DTI is calculated by dividing the borrower's annual income (before taxes) into their annual non-housing debt payments."
Entitlement:
- An attitude by certain borrowers that they deserve to have their loans funded, regardless of the inadequacy of their past behavior or risk profile. This type of borrower usually posts on the forums in an outrage when lenders decline to bid on their listings.
ETA:
- Edited to Add
FAN:
- (Financial Assistance Network) The first group to be banned from Prosper for the near-criminal activities of the Group Leader(s).
GL:
- Group Leader
HBMO:
- Help bail me out!
HEL:
- Home Equity Loan. Typically a fixed-length, fixed-rate installment loan. Sometimes used as a second loan for home purchase, sometimes used for other purposes.
HELOC:
- Home Equity Line of Credit. Typically a variable-rate loan that one can borrow against (like a credit card), but sometimes is also used as a second loan in a home purchase.
Hi_Max:
- The GL of a group that changes names more often than a chameleon changes color. Hi-Max refuses to communicate with borrowers and lenders alike, maintaining an off-Prosper bulletin board where it is rumored that he sometimes post.
HR:
- High Risk. This is the credit grade given by Prosper to those that have an Experian Scorex PLUS score from 520 - 559.
IANAL:
- I Am Not A Lawyer
IPO:
- Initial Public Offering. When a company "goes public", the first selling of shares is called an "IPO". (Later selling of stock is a "Secondary Public Offering".) Example: Some lenders who are optimistic about Prosper are waiting for Prosper's IPO so they can buy Prosper stock.
JessM:
- A listing that made the annals in Prosper. The lady is a well-known and prolific fraudster who was uncovered on Prosper. She subsequently attempted blackmail on an executive at a large corporation and was arrested. The thread discussing her and tracking her progress through the court system is the longest thread on Prosper. Learn more about her ["user_JessM" here].
Lawyer-2-Be:
- A sock-puppet (cf.) who is willing to sue every and any person, provided he passes a bar exam or a college entrance exam. Spelling is not a strong point of this person. Nor is education. There may or may not be some religious influences as well.
LBYM:
- Living Below Your Means
Lemmders:
- Lenders who do no research on loans but, like lemmings, follow prior bidders on fully funded loans, driving the rate on such loans to below-market rates.
Loanicide:
- An activity by a borrower on the Prosper forums that polarizes the entire lending community against that borrower and ensures the failure of the borrower's loan request. (See: Miss Dixie)
LOL:
- Laughing Out Loud. (See also ROF)
M&G:
- See Meet and Greet.
Meet and Greet:
- A gathering of Prosper staff, lenders, group leaders, and possibly borrowers. The largest M&G to date was probably "Prosper Days" in San Francisco, and included the Prosper Marketplace, Inc., headquarters.
Miss Dixie:
- An entitlement (cf.) borrower who invoked the wrath of God on the lenders who were unwilling to fund her clearly unfundable loan. Her posts also led to the creation of Lawyer-2-be, a mysterious sock-puppet (cf.).
MNH:
- My New Hobby; refers to carefully researched reports of investigations into Prosper errors and/or malfeasance (which? you decide) posted from time to time by forum member Traveler505.
Money Markets:
- Can mean money market funds or money market accounts. It can also refer to the types of instruments a Money Market Fund invests in (see below).
Money Market Account:
- (MMA) or Money Market Deposit Account (MMDA): a "high interest" savings account offered by banks and credit unions. These are FDIC insured (banks) or NCUA insured (for NCUA-member credit unions). Typically the holder of such an account is limited to no more than 6 withdrawals/month (the limit of withdrawals is so the bank doesn't have a reserve requirement). The bank or credit union decides how to use the money, typically by lending it out at a higher interest rate.
Money Market Fund:
- (MMF) or Money Market Mutual Fund (MMMF): a mutual fund (usually from a fund family or a brokerage) that invests in "money market" instruments, typically high-quality, short-term debt, such as short-term Treasuries, corporate paper from corporations that have been rated among the top two credit grades from one of the corporate credit rating organizations, or jumbo CDs. Usually the maximum duration of instruments allowed in the fund's portfolio is 390 days, and there is a limit to how much of the fund's portfolio can be in any one issuer (other than Treasuries). The credit quality and diversification requirements make these funds very safe (unlikely but possible to lose value), even though they aren't FDIC insured. Even though these usually don't limit the number of withdrawals, they typically have minimum deposits and minimum redemptions (e.g., at least $100 to add to a MMF, at least $250 withdrawal) to discourage high transaction rates.
NAT:
NSF:
- Not Sufficient Funds, a "bounced" check, ACH direct debit, or bank draft.
OP:
- (1) Original Poster. The person who started the forum thread.
- (2) The first post of a thread.
- (3) When used by Prosper to prefix a payment number, EG OP893377, it means Olga Petranovich (A Prosper collections employee). This is used to indicate that she obtained the payment as part of her collection duties. Or it could indicate "Other Payment" (e.g., initiated by Prosper as an additional payment).
OPM:
- Other People's Money. This is borrowed money used for investment purposes, such as a mortgage to buy investment properties, or a loan for investing in the stock market or in Prosper. (BTL, Borrow To Lend is a specific example of this.)
PD:
- Abbreviation for Paid or Prosper Days. (See "Meet and Greet" above.)
PDL:
- Pay Day Loans
PIF:
- Paid In Full
PII:
- Personally Identifiable Information. The posting of PII - that is, any information which reveals the identity of a Prosper member - is prohibited in the official Prosper forums at forums.prosper.com.
PM:
- Private Message
PMI:
- Prosper Marketplace, Inc.
- Private Mortgage Insurance
PR:
- Public Record (bankruptcy, judgment, etc.)
- A.K.A., Randy is also the GL of one of the mega-groups on Prosper. PsychDoc is co-owner of Creditboards from where he drew a large membership. Prosper fans and CB members engaged in a pitched battle early on, but the dust has since settled. In late 2006 PsychDoc pleaded private commitments and withdrew from daily life on Prosper. He has not been seen since.
- Stock market: buying a stock (e.g., a penny stock), hyping it (typically spam describing a great investment opportunity), and, after the stock price goes up, selling that stock at a profit. When prices return to normal, those who bought the hype have lost money. It's illegal.
- Prosper: Refers to a lender (usually the group leader) making significant bid(s) at the listing initial rate. The goal is to elicit more bids from Standing Orders (that trigger at a given funding percentage) or unwary, innocent Lemmders.
The "pumper" hopes to get outbid and thus "dump" his risk in the loan. In this way, questionable loans (that might not fund in a rational environment) can fund. The pumper benefits by collecting either group fees and/or by additional trivial bids that he may have in the loan at the final rate.
This is always a deceptive bidding strategy that a lender should be aware of. It is not technically a violation of Prosper's TOS (yet). But, when used solely to collect group fees, or when used in conjunction with Prosper's misleading "endorsement" system; "pump and dump" is clearly a fraudulent practice.
Purple:
- Proper use is PurpleCEO. Used in conjunction with a loan, listing or person, this refers to a Prosper borrower who listed a loan to fund an outrageous business venture. Due to the intervention of Cellardoor (cf.) the borrower fully funded. He then turned on the lending community and was most outrageously hostile to lenders until banned from the forums.
RML:
- "Review My Listing!" forum. This was removed when prosper destroyed its old forums and there is no equivalent in Prosper's new official forum.
Prospers.org maintains an active RML area here.
A snapshot of the old RML area can be seen here.
ROF:
- Rolling on Floor (very funny!), sometimes used with LMAO: Laughing My @$$ Off! (See also LOL)
ROI:
- Return On Investment (in the context of Prosper, usually refers to a lender's net investment return after projected or actual defaults are taken into account).
Scorex:
- (Or Scorex Plus) This is the Experian product that is used to calculate the credit grade of the borrower. Although Scorex is used (in principle) to distinguish relatively low-risk borrowers from truly subprime ones, it is distinct from the more widely known FICO® score. For many borrowers the two scores do not correlate, as they are calculated differently, use different numerical scales, and may reflect data obtained at different times or from different CRAs.
Secured Credit Card:
- A credit card that is secured by a deposit. Typically used by someone wanting to start a credit history (if the card reports to the credit reporting agencies) or get back into using credit. Such a person may sign up for a secured credit card and send a deposit, and then the credit limit on that card is the amount on deposit. Bankrate.com is one of the sources of information on Secured Credit Cards.
Serial Killer Calendar:
- The most dubious business venture ever funded on Prosper is an initiative by the PurpleCEO to create a calendar with images of real and fictional serial killers. Apparently there is a market for that type of merchandise.
Snickers (Bar):
- A minimum ($50) bid on a listing. Coined by a not-so-appreciative borrower.
SO:
- Standing Order, similar to a Saved Search but will, based on a set of user-designated criteria, place bids automatically if there is money in the account and a listing meets the criteria. Recently replaced by "Portfolio Plan".
- Significant Other (spouse, close friend)
Social Lending:
- Lending primarily for "social" benefit rather than for financial benefit. This can include lending at below market rates to borrowers who are rate-capped. Social loans are also called, "The biggest mistake of my life." by experienced Lenders.
Sock-Puppet:
- A device most often used by people who want to appear as multiple personalities on the official ("other") forums, or who wish to disguise themselves (for example, to continue posting if their original user ID is banned). Some create multiple identities to hold pseudo-conversations between the entities, while others allow each entity to take on a discrete personality. Sock-Puppets usually expose themselves by either inadvertently posting with the wrong handle, or making consistent spelling and grammar mistakes across the multiple entities.
- There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, generally taken to mean that if one is getting an exceptionally good deal, look for fraud, hidden risk or other down side that might not be immediately obvious.
Tokyo Joe Effect:
- The effect on autofund listings after Tokyo Joe analyzed the performance data of such listings. His analysis was in late 2006 and showed that autofund listings greatly underperformed the market. This led to drastic decrease in autofund listings being funded.
TOS:
- Terms of Service. The collective set of Legal Agreements and Site Policies we agree to when using Prosper and the official forums. Includes the TOU, Terms of Use.
UrbiTV:
Utopia:
- At one time the largest group on Prosper, the GL, Paul, was very active to promote his group, thinking up numerous schemes, both on-Prosper and off-Prosper, to grow his group. Many of the schemes were vetoed by Prosper and the remaining ones failed to materialize.
Vet:
- Verify. On Prosper, the usual meaning is that a borrower has a trusted Group Leader (or other trusted individual) review documentation, call employer, etc., to verify claims of the borrower. Typically employment, nature of delinquencies or public records, and/or claims of assets are verified. Then the GL reports back a summary of that information without compromising the borrower's identity. Vetting can help a borrower if it can be confirmed that the borrower's risk is lower than represented by "the numbers", but it can also hurt if the risk is shown to be higher.
VBE:
- Verified Bidding Endorsement. Example: A GL (or other independent third-party) calls the endorser to confirm that he/she is the Prosper user who made the endorsement. VBE's should be worded to include the relationship to the borrower, its duration, the amount bid and at what interest rates. Not stating the rate suggests the endorsement is a Pump and Dump.
WGAF:
- An almost universal choice in .org polls. Who Gives A F---.
XIRR:
- A function in Excel that is available as part of the Analysis Toolpack. It is used to calculate an internal rate of return. See this forum posting for more information.
YGBFSM:
- You Gotta Be F****n Sh1ttin' Me!
See Also
References
- Prosper Discussion Forums - The Prosper Glossary of Terms
- Prosper Discussion Forums - acronymn list
- Prosper Help Topics
External Links
