Margin debt levels at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) show the amount of funds customers are borrowing from their brokerage (i.e. levering up). Historically, when NYSE margin debt gets to a +1.5 standard deviation or greater, market risk increases considerably. With current levels above +1.5 and the S&P 500 struggling to maintain its new all-time closing high of 1570, we could very well see a sell off in the US equity market sooner rather than later if history is anything to go by.
