Sorry I wasn't more clear. I'm interested in a discussion of how many people they expect to access this asset class in a fund vs through the platforms directly. It seems like accessing 'p2p' via funds could make up a majority at least as far as retail investors are concerned. I'm aware of the literal 'how' of buying a fund.
I think what rawraw was trying to say is that even tho most of the trading on wall street is institutional (ie comes thru middlemen, mutual funds, hedge funds, advisors, etc) the common man still has ample opportunity to buy and sell individual stocks & bonds directly. Therefore, just because a lot of money is coming thru intermediaries doesn't mean individuals will necessarily be crowded out.
I think the presence of the intermediaries is hilarious. This industry is based on the notion of disintermediation of banks. So what happens? A bunch of intermediaries of different kinds pop up and try to shave their piece off of the returns! There are various "funds" investing in P2P loans taking their 1% or whatever (extremely high if you ask me), and there are even middlemen who help institutional investors who don't have enough knowledge to do it themselves. These are middlemen for the middlemen! Orchard Platform has this business model. If you want to start a hedge fund to invest in P2P, but you don't know beans about P2P, you just let Orchard tell you what to do and automate it as well. That is both outrageous and hilarious. The enablement of a bunch of guys in New York who know nothing is just classic.
