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More Americans are magnifying their stock market gains — and pains — with borrowed money.
Data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) shows that the debit balances in U.S. customers’ securities margin accounts topped $1.5 trillion as of June 2026. By comparison, U.S. credit card debt is $1.26 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Margin trading is essentially investing with borrowed money. Instead of using cash in your brokerage account, investors borrow additional funds from their broker to buy more stocks.
And judging by FINRA’s prior numbers, there’s no sign of this trend slowing down. In fact, the $1.5 trillion figure in June is up 7.9% from May. In June 2025, FINRA showed margin debt was roughly $1 trillion, meaning margin accounts rose by about 50% within one year.
Moneywise reached out to FINRA for further comment and it clarified that these margin numbers encompass “any person whose funds or securities are held by a broker-dealer on their behalf,” which includes individual and institutional investors, investment funds, corporations and businesses, and trusts and estates.
As the overall market continues its bullish trend, using margin seems like the obvious move. Depending on how much someone borrowed, their positions could be up double, triple, or more versus the actual market gain.
The trouble is that when there’s a big enough dip, brokers send out “margin calls” to collect their cash. At this point, there isn’t enough money in a trader’s balance to cover a borrowed stock position. Traders have to add cash quickly — otherwise, they’ll lose everything in a liquidation.
Why is margin trading going mainstream?
The obvious catalyst for these crazy margin numbers is the current stock market bull run. Largely fueled by AI, benchmark indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 have been on a tear, rising about 13% and 18% year-to-date, respectively.
But there…
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