Record Margin Debt Isn’t a Crash Signal — It’s a Fragility Gauge
Every few months a headline arrives warning that stock-market borrowing has hit a new record, and every few months investors ask the same question: does this mean a crash is coming? The honest answer is less satisfying than the headline. Record leverage tells you a great deal about how exposed individual portfolios have become to a downturn — and almost nothing about when, or whether, that downturn will arrive.