I came across this article courtesy of the Ed Steers’ daily email. It talks about how margin debt in April reached $384.4 billion in brokerage accounts, exceeding the levels of June 2007. Typically margin debt is a sign of confidence and is used as a way to increase exposure to the stock market, which by itself seems foolish to me at these levels. However, there is one person interviewed in the article who suggests that margin debt is actually being used to finance the flipping of houses.
We really have learned nothing.
