Buon giorno, could you comment on Trustbuddy? ticker TBDY on Sweden stock market and on similar firms? There are two ways to invest: wither buy the stock, or lend money. Seems too good to be true.

Eoin Treacy's view

Thank you for this question which touches on an increasingly popular trend. Crowd funding, seed investments and microfinancing have all grown in popularity as social media enables greater interaction between counterparties, without the need for an intermediary such as a bank. The macro situation where savers have been poorly rewarded by the yields on fixed income and the inability of small businesses to source capital has also facilitated this evolution. I imagine the primary risk with such loans is that the only security is your counterparty’s credit score. If subscribers have additional comments I believe the Collective would be interested in learning more about this sector.  

The share  has been ranging mostly above SEK2 since December and a sustained move below that level would be required to question potential for additional higher to lateral ranging. 

In the collateralised small loan sector Albemarle & Bond has been taken private. In the USA EZ Corp and Cash America International both appeared in the list of companies with PEG ratios below 1 I posted on Friday. 

EZCorp (PEG 0.59, Est P/E 8.49) has been ranging mostly above $10 since November and has unwound its overextension relative to the 200-day MA in the process. A sustained move above $13 will be required to break the more than two-year downtrend and signal a return to demand dominance beyond the short term. 

Cash America International (PEG 0.96, Est P/E 10.2, DY 0.31%) has found support in the region of $35 on a number of occasions since 2012 and has held a progression of higher reaction lows since the most recent retest of that level in December.