Market Sentiment: NYSE Margin Debt At Historical High, Topping 2000 Record

I'm not sure it's worth adding any comment, but just in case you were among the 5 people on earth who panicked because of the Middle East or Japan, you missed a big buying opportunities, according to the lemmings who are more leveraged than any time in recorded history:

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The amount of money borrowed from brokerages that do business on the New York Stock Exchange to buy stock reached a record $285.6 billion last month, topping the prior high set at the peak of the so-called Internet bubble.

Changes in the level of margin debt, as the borrowing is called, have mirrored those of U.S. stock indexes. After setting an all-time high of $278.5 billion in March 2000, margin debt dropped to less than half that amount by September 2002.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average set records in January and March of 2000, respectively. They reached their nadirs on Oct. 9, 2002, by declining 49 percent and 38 percent. The subsequent bull market has put the S&P 500 4.6 percent away from a record, and the Dow at an all- time high.
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Thanks SS for forwarding me this news report.