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To: chojiro who wrote (51464)	12/27/2000 12:19:39 AM
From: pater tenebrarum	Respond to of 436258

well, what is left of the margin debt mountain is almost certainly margin that was incurred around present or lower prices. the NAZ has given back its blow-off, and the debt that financed it has been wiped out. but the margin debt total is still quite high historically, and one has to take into account 'hidden' margin debt in the form of home loans and credit card liabilities. even car leases have to be pondered - some people have bought their cars using leasing so that they'd be able to use their cash for playing the market one way or the other. e.g. many exercised their employee stock options, especially in tech, only to lose it all and more, due to the tax liability not being waived if their company's stock has collapsed. heard some very sad stories about margin calls hitting MSFT, WCOM, etc. employees, wiping out a life-time of savings in some cases. but note the volume during the blow-off...the expansion in volume denotes how the little guy was lured in as the top was made. in the end even plants were playing the market (no joke - a guy in Sweden connected a pot plant to market information somehow and let it pick stocks. Fleck had the link to the story in one of his raps, i don't remember the technicalities of how this was done - his comment back then : "seems EVERYBODY is in now". and it was indeed a top marker).