Bull Market vs Bear Market: What's the Difference?
"Bull market" and "bear market" are the two phrases you'll hear most often to describe market direction. They describe sustained trends, not a single day's move.
Bull market
A bull market is a prolonged period of rising prices and optimism. Investors are confident, buying is strong, and indices trend upward. A common informal threshold is a rise of 20% or more from a recent low.
Bear market
A bear market is the opposite — a prolonged decline, usually defined as a fall of 20% or more from a recent high, accompanied by pessimism and selling. Bear markets often coincide with economic slowdowns or shocks.
Where the names come from
The common explanation is how each animal attacks: a bull thrusts its horns up, a bear swipes its paws down — mapping to rising and falling prices. The terms are old market slang, not technical definitions.
Why it matters
Labels aside, the useful idea is that markets move in trends over months and years, not just day to day. You can see long-run market direction in the index history, and a stock's own trend via its 52-week range and moving averages.