Margin Debt Hit All-Time High in February

[ajacobson]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/margin-debt-hit-all-time-high-in-february-1490825475

 

[sle]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/margin-debt-hit-all-time-high-in-february-1490825475

Actually, using absolute dollars in this context is very misleading. If you adjusted the outstanding margin by the total market capitalization, the number does not look nearly as scary. I can paste a table with these numbers by year, if someone wants. The highest margin debt as a percent of market cap was in February 2008.

 

[Lee-]

Actually, using absolute dollars in this context is very misleading. If you adjusted the outstanding margin by the total market capitalization, the number does not look nearly as scary. I can paste a table with these numbers by year, if someone wants. The highest margin debt as a percent of market cap was in February 2008.

But then it's not as good (scary) of a headline.

 

[J.P.]

Actually, using absolute dollars in this context is very misleading. If you adjusted the outstanding margin by the total market capitalization, the number does not look nearly as scary. I can paste a table with these numbers by year, if someone wants. The highest margin debt as a percent of market cap was in February 2008.

Yes, please do. TIA.