Margin debt is growing 28 points faster than the market

FINRA margin debt reached a record $1.50 trillion in June 2026, up 49% from a year earlier, while SPY rose 21% over the same twelve months. Borrowing outgrowing the market by 28 points is the widest gap since October 2007, when it touched 28.6.

This gauge measures leverage building faster than the assets behind it; it has never worked as a timing signal, and the 1999–2000 episode ran above this level for months before it mattered. What it does say: a pullback today meets more forced selling than the same pullback would have met a year ago.