Bull Market” vs “Bear Market” What’s The Difference?

bull vs bear meaning

One common strategy is selling at a loss and putting your money in fixed-income securities. However, when planning, it can be beneficial to include securities that have the potential to grow during a bear market. When looking at market trends, it’s essential to evaluate performance over a period of time, not just reactions to events that may or may not be related to a changing market. When small changes occur, that can mean either a short-term event or a stock market correction which is a decline of 10% or more from the previous peak. When we’re in a bear market, with a weak economy, demand is low as investors sell and supply is high, which leads to dropping stock prices. On the other hand, a bear market is when stock prices have fallen by 20% since the last market high, and attitudes of negativity and pessimism are the norm.

Is it better to buy in a bull or bear market?

How should you invest in a bull vs. bear market? Growth stocks in bull markets tend to perform well, while value stocks are usually better buys in bear markets.

The longest bull market lasted 4,494 days, from December 4, 1987, to March 24, 2000. The shortest bear market, which ran from February 19, 2020, bull vs bear meaning to March 23, 2020, lasted just 33 days. The longest bear market ran from March 24, 2000, through October 9, 2002, stretching over 929 days.

Approaches to Consider in a Bear Market

In a bull market, every downturn looks like a buying opportunity, as the saying goes. Interest rates aren’t rising in a way that’s seen as threatening to the market rally. The rise is broad-based, and most stocks gain, even if a company is doing poorly. Bear markets can hurt your portfolio, but can also be an opportunity to buy stocks cheaper. Dan is a veteran writer and editor specializing in financial news, market education, and public relations. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly a decade covering corporate news and markets for Dow Jones Newswires, with his articles frequently appearing in The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

bull vs bear meaning

During a bear market, the economy slows down and unemployment rises as companies begin laying off workers. The primary cause of a bull market is investor optimism that the price of an asset or assets will rise, earning them a profit. But there are several other factors at play, some internal, some external. For instance, a generally robust economy marked by low unemployment and strong gross domestic product growth is fertile soil for a bull market to take root. Nobody likes a bear market, but it can also present buying opportunities once the dust settles.

What is a bear market in crypto?

Extrapolating to the current market situation, the Nifty 50; Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty Small cap 250 have declined 14.5%, 17.7% and 18.0%, respectively, from their October 2021 high to May 2022 lows. This indicates that Indian markets are not yet in the grip of a bear market.

bull vs bear meaning