Living with Mom and trading on margin. The regular investor gets in on Wall Street's record stock borrowing binge — SkimNews
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- Robinhood reported a record $21.6 billion margin book in Q2, up 127% year-over-year and 332% from $5 billion in Q2 2024, per Citizens financial technology research head Devin Ryan.
- Total margin debt hit an all-time high of approximately $1.5 trillion in June, according to FINRA data.
- Hy Luu, a 29-year-old Houston engineering consultant living with his mother in a three-bedroom house, built more than $100,000 in Tesla-concentrated margin debt and reached over $156,000 in margin after exercising $165,000 in call options on 500 shares at $330 each in June.
- Tesla shares have climbed more than 43% over the last five years to $375 but remain roughly 25% off their all-time high near $499.
- Fundstrat Global Advisors data shows that whenever monthly margin debt has grown above 45% year-over-year since 1960, the S&P 500 has declined five of six times — June's 49% YoY reading puts the market in that historical danger zone even though the S&P 500 is up more than 13% in 2026.
Why it matters: With total margin debt at $1.5 trillion and June's 49% YoY growth in a zone where the S&P 500 has historically declined five of six times since 1960, concentrated retail bets like Luu's all-Tesla portfolio face direct margin-call risk in any sharp selloff — exactly the scenario Luu lived through in 2022 when he refinanced his mother's house for $30,000 to keep his account afloat.
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