Bull and bear

Bull
An investor who thinks the market, a specific security or an industry will rise. Investor who takes a bull approach will purchase securities under the assumption that they can be sold later at a higher price. A "bear" is considered to be the opposite of a bull. Bear investors believe that the value of a specific security or an industry is likely to decline in the future. Bulls are optimistic investors who are presently predicting good things for the market, and are attempting to profit from this upward movement. For example, if you are bullish on the S&P 500, you will attempt to profit from a rise in the index by "going long" on it. Bears, in comparison, are pessimistic and believe that a particular security, commodity or entity will suffer a decline in price. Bullishness does not necessarily apply only to the stock market; you could, for example, be bullish on just about anything, including real estate or commodities, like soy beans, crude oil or even peanuts. What Does Bull Market Mean? A financial market of a group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. The term "bull market" is most often used to refer to the stock market, but can be applied to anything that is traded, such as bonds, currencies and commodities. Bull markets are characterized by optimism, investor confidence and expectations that strong results will continue. It's difficult to predict consistently when the trends in the market will change. Part of the difficulty is that psychological effects and speculation may sometimes play a large role in the markets. The use of "bull" and "bear" to describe markets comes from the way the animals attack their opponents. A bull thrusts its horns up into the air while a bear swipes its paws down. These actions are metaphors for the movement of a market. If the trend is up, it's a bull market. If the trend is down, it's a bear market.

Bear
An investor who believes that a particular security or market is headed downward. Bears attempt to profit from a decline in prices. Bears are generally pessimistic about the state of a given market. For example, if an investor were bearish on the S&P 500 they would attempt to profit from a decline in the broad market index. Bearish sentiment can be applied to all types of markets including commodity markets, stock markets and the bond market.
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Although you often hear that the stock market is constantly in a state of flux as the bears and their optimistic counterparts, "bulls", are trying to take control, do remember that over the last 100 years or so the U.S. stock market has increased an average 11% a year. This means that every single long-term market bear has lost money. What Does Bear Market Mean? A market condition in which the prices of securities are falling, and widespread pessimism causes the negative sentiment to be self-sustaining. As investors anticipate losses in a bear market and selling continues, pessimism only grows. Although figures can vary, for many, a downturn of 20% or more in multiple broad market indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500), over at least a two-month period, is considered an entry into a bear market. A bear market should not be confused with a correction, which is a short-term trend that has duration of less than two months. While corrections are often a great place for a value investor to find an entry point, bear markets rarely provide great entry points, as timing the bottom is very difficult to do. Fighting back can be extremely dangerous because it is quite difficult for an investor to make stellar gains during a bear market unless he or she is a short seller. Where did the bull and bear market get their names? First of all, let's remember that bears are sluggish and bulls spirited and burly. The terms are used to describe general actions and attitudes, or sentiment, either of an individual (bear and bull) or the market. A bear market refers to a decline in prices, usually for a period of a few months, in a single security or asset, group of securities or the securities market as a whole. A bull market is when prices are rising.

The actual origins of these expressions are unclear. Here are two of the most frequent explanations given: 1. The terms "bear" and "bull" are thought to derive from the way in which each animal attacks its

opponents. That is, a bull will thrust its horns up into the air, while a bear will swipe down. These actions were then related metaphorically to the movement of a market: if the trend was up, it was considered a bull market; if the trend was down, it was a bear market. 2. Historically, the middlemen in the sale of bearskins would sell skins they had yet to receive. As such,

they would speculate on the future purchase price of these skins from the trappers, hoping they would drop. The trappers would profit from a spread - the difference between the cost price and the selling price. These middlemen became known as "bears", short for bearskin jobbers, and the term stuck for describing a downturn in the market. Conversely, because bears and bulls were widely considered to be opposites due to the once-popular blood sport of bull-and-bear fights, the term bull stands as the opposite of bears.

Reference:Investopedia.com

Compiled by: Kailash Singh Bhandari NIAM, Jaipur