MoM / YoY
MoM is the percentage change vs prior month. YoY is change vs the same month 12 months ago.
Cushion ratio
(Free credit in cash accounts + Free credit in margin accounts) / Debit balances.
Higher = more cash cushion relative to leverage.
Regimes
- Low: Debit below 24M average and YoY < 0
- Building: YoY between 0% and +15%
- Elevated: YoY > +20% or YoY in top quartile since 1997
- Fragile: YoY rolling over (down 3 months) while debt level remains above its 24M average
- Deleveraging: YoY < -10% or 3-month change sharply negative
Data can be revised by the publisher. If FINRA changes the spreadsheet layout, the parser will attempt to self-heal by finding header names; if it can’t, the API will return an error with details.