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The Trillion-Dollar Borrowing Binge Lifting the Stock Market to Risky Heights
Leveraged funds and margin debt have grown to unprecedented levels this year

By Jack Pitcher / June 28, 2026

Investors have never been more eager to ratchet up their stock returns through margin loans and funds that amplify gains and losses. It may be a sign of trouble.  

U.S. margin debt, or what investors borrow from their brokerages to buy securities, rose 54% to a record $1.4 trillion in May from a year earlier, according to Finra data. Meanwhile, high-risk leveraged exchange-traded funds that produce double or triple the daily move of underlying stocks are growing rapidly, as is trading in options tied to them.

The risks surfaced this past week in South Korea, a market dominated by highflying semiconductor stocks and rife with investors eager to pile on leverage. Korean stocks gyrated, triggering circuit-breakers meant to stop losses on the way down. As the souring mood spilled into U.S. trading, hitting AI-related stocks, a chorus of investors and analysts sounded the alarm that leverage was building up here, too.
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