Investors are borrowing huge sums of money to buy stocks. Is that a problem?
The “everything rally” that started in stocks last year has been boosted by investors betting money they’ve borrowed. That includes both small players like the day traders on Robinhood Markets Inc. and heavyweights like Archegos Capital Management, the investing firm that triggered a mini meltdown for several companies’ stocks.
As of late February, investors had borrowed a record $814 billion against their portfolios, according to data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulatory arm. That was up 49% from one year earlier, the fastest annual increase since 2007, during the frothy period before the 2008 financial crisis. Before that, the last time investor borrowings had grown so rapidly was during the dot-com bubble in 1999.
Finra’s data doesn’t necessarily mean that investor borrowing has fueled the S&P 500’s epic 53% rally over the past 12 months. There are many other factors behind those gains, including the U.S. economy’s rebound from the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies.
No comments:
Post a Comment