SoFi Blog

By Maury Denton, UVA, Darden MBA 2014 – SoFi Member since 2012

If someone were to ask me why I chose to finance my student loan with SoFi, my answer – in a word – would be “network.”

At last week’s SoFi Supper Club in San Francisco, a small group of SoFi borrowers met with featured guest Andre Haddad, CEO of revolutionary car-sharing business RelayRides. We were so fortunate to have Andre share his insights around what’s driving the success of the sharing economy – and what he thinks is next for this groundbreaking industry.

King dollar is back.  For the last decade, the dollar has generally been inversely correlated to the S&P 500.  When markets were up, the dollar was down versus most other currencies.  Higher markets were associated with lower volatility and greater risk appetite – the “Risk On” trade.  Investors would short dollars and buy higher yielding currencies like the Australian Dollar, Brazilian Real and Norwegian Krone.  On a risk-adjusted basis, these carry trades had an attractive Sharpe ratio and were the lifeblood of too many hedge fund managers (collecting 2/20 on carry is almost criminal, but that’s another story).

It’s good to be the king, while it lasts…

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk amongst leaders in Washington about how to improve the painful process of repaying student loans. At SoFi, we feel your pain and work hard to offer more flexible, more affordable options for our borrowers. One idea that’s getting a lot of attention is increasing the options for refinancing debt after graduation. The only lender currently focused on refinancing student loans (both private and federal) is SoFi.

I got a request to write something about the recent fall in gold prices.  Gold had rallied the last decade through a combination of “it’s the end of the world” buyers and concerns about inflation.  These concerns are now getting replaced with expectations for high real rates driven by growth and a Fed exit, and from expectations of low inflation.  Consequently, gold has suffered.  Oil – another hedge fund commodity favorite – has held on to its gains, showing support for some industrial commodities (and supporting a growth thesis – sort of).