kasinkei

Please don't accept everything you see over the net. Debt/equity is debt-to-equity ratio and financial leverage is Total Asset/Total Equity. Yes, the denominator is " Total equity". However, the debt-to-equity ratio also measures financial leverage of a firm too because of the apparent relationship between the two ratios. Here's how they relate :

Financial leverage = Total Asset/Total Equity = (Liabilities + Equity)/ Equity = debt-to-equity ratio + 1

Hope this helps.