In market language, a <strong>bull</strong> expects prices to rise and a <strong>bear</strong> expects them to fall — "He's bullish on the pound" means he thinks it will strengthen; "The bank turned bearish on housing" means it expects a decline. A <em>bull market</em> is a sustained rise, a <em>bear market</em> a sustained fall.
The core difference
Both words describe direction and mood at the same time. Bullish pairs rising prices with optimism; bearish pairs falling prices with pessimism. They apply to a whole market, to a single asset, or to a person's opinion — you can be bullish on a company while the wider index is in a bear market.
The memory trick
The standard mnemonic is about how each animal attacks: a bull tosses its horns upwards, a bear swipes its paws downwards. Whether that is where the terms came from is not settled, so treat it as a memory aid rather than an origin story — it works either way.
What the terms mean in practice
- Bull market: a prolonged period of rising prices and confident buying. There is no official threshold, but commentators often mark one from a 20% rise off a recent low.
- Bear market: conventionally a fall of 20% or more from a recent high, sustained over weeks or months, not a single bad day.
- Correction: the smaller cousin — usually a drop of around 10%, short of bear territory.
- Bullish/bearish on X: optimistic or pessimistic about X specifically. Widely used outside finance now, for anything from a football team to a product launch.
The test
Ask which way the speaker thinks the line on the chart is going. Up is a bull; down is a bear. If you are writing rather than reading, check that the verb agrees with the direction: bulls buy, rally and run; bears sell, short and maul.
Examples
- Analysts remain bullish on European banks despite the quarter's results.
- She called the top of the bull market almost to the week.
- Two years into a bear market, the fund's inflows finally stabilised.
- I'm bearish on the whole sector — margins have nowhere to go.
The common mistake
People reach for "bear market" after any sharp fall. A single volatile week is not a bear market; the term implies a sustained trend. Similarly, "bullish" is not a synonym for "aggressive" or "confident" in general — it specifically means expecting an increase, so "a bullish sales pitch" is a stretch that careful writers avoid.
The other meanings
Outside finance, bear is a common verb meaning to carry or endure ("bear the cost", "I can't bear it") with the irregular past forms bore and borne — nothing to do with markets. And a bull is the male animal, plus the fixed phrases "take the bull by the horns" and "a bull in a china shop".
None of this is a recommendation about what to do with your money — it is what the vocabulary means.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a bear market?
The widely used convention is a fall of 20% or more from a recent peak, sustained rather than momentary. It is a reporting convention, not an official definition, so different outlets draw the line slightly differently.
Does "bullish" always mean prices going up?
In finance, yes — it means expecting a rise. In looser everyday use it has drifted towards "optimistic about", as in "I'm bullish on the new team", which most readers now accept.
Is a bear market the same as a crash or a recession?
No. A crash is a sudden, violent fall over days; a bear market is a long decline. A recession is a contraction in the wider economy, measured in output, and the two do not always coincide.