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NYSE Margin Debt Reaches $285.6 Billion, Topping 2000 Record By Nick Baker 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. Investors with cash accounts at brokerages must pay the full purchase price themselves when buying shares. Through margin accounts, they can borrow as much as half the money. NYSE Group Inc.'s New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange, released the margin-debt data for December today.