A Big Reason Why 2013 Stock Prices are in the Stratosphere

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Margin debt, incredibly, is up 100 times in the last 39 years (see the chart above). It was $4 billion back in 1974; it's nearly $400 billion today. That is a big reason why stock prices are in the stratosphere. You might think that there's a lot more money around, thereby justifying the rise. ... Let's normalize this indicator to GDP and see what we have. ... [M]argin debt as a percentage of annual GDP is still 10 times the 1974 level. ... The current ratio is also 3 times what it was at previous major tops in the stock market in the 20th century.

[AdriennHar]

A famous quote attributed to Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, is: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world." And, as you probably know, leverage can also move the stock market.

In the July-August Elliott Wave Theorist, Robert Prechter discussed the role of leverage in sending the market to new price highs.

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The high levels of margin debt in the stock market should be a concern to every investor, as should other indicators that Elliott Wave International reviews.

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