Yesterday and today, some of my first Steem Power leases expired. These were the largest leases. After they expire, it is necessary to log into the Dlease.io website to undelegate the SP, which is done. After undelegating, it takes five days to get use of your SP back. Therefore, I should be able to lease again by this weekend.
As you can see from the image, my current SP is low, making my posts, comments, and votes hardly worth anything. The five days from undelegation to using the SP again are included in the APR of the lease. So, while I may not be getting STEEM for five days, the loss is calculated in.
Going forward, I think I will stagger my leases so that they are in smaller chunks and a week apart. My idea is to reduce the downtime, which isn't really downtime. I don't suppose it matters that my SP is in limbo for five days if the wait is calculated into the lease. Thinking about it, having several smaller leases are more work than having a few larger leases.
All of this mental calculation is pointless as it will depend largely on what is available. Since I got started, I have seen the inventory of leases go between 75 and 90. There always seems to be a fresh supply of Steemians looking to borrow SP. Currently, the leases range between 17 and 3000 SP. Only having 1080 SP in total, that excludes me from many of the larger leases. However, I suppose I will get to that level in time.
I have learned that EOS has something similar to leasing SP. You can lease your EOS or resources on the REX, which pays out in tokens that can be exchanged for EOS. The returns on EOS leasing are not as great as they are here on STEEM.
I did figure out a more efficient way to convert SBD to BTS or EOS. It is possible to transfer SBD from your STEEM account out to the BEOS exchange to convert to either BTS or EOS. From the BEOS exchange, it is then possible to transfer out. Previously, I had been using Blocktrades as an intermediary. This has nothing to do with leasing, except that being able to take my SBD earnings out to invest in other ventures allows me to keep reinvesting STEEM and SP back into my account here. This is a long-term endeavor.