STOCK MARKET

A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as stock that is only traded privately, such as shares of private companies that are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Investments are usually made with an investment strategy in mind.

BULL MARCKET

In finance, a bull is a speculator in a stock market who buys a holding in a stock in the expectation that, in the very short-term, it will rise in value, whereupon they will sell the stock to make a quick profit on the transaction.[1] Strictly speaking, the term applies to speculators who borrow[2] money to fund such a purchase, and are thus under great pressure to complete the transaction before the loan is repayable or the seller of the stock demands payment on settlement day for delivery of the bargain. If the value of the stock falls contrary to their expectation, a bull suffers a loss, frequently very large if they are trading on margin. A bull has a great incentive to "talk-up" the value of their stock or to manipulate the market of their stock, for example by spreading false rumors,[3] to procure a buyer or to cause a temporary price increase which will provide them with the selling opportunity and profit they require

BEAR MARCKET

A bear market is defined by a prolonged drop in investment prices — generally, a bear market happens when a broad market index falls by 20% or more from its most recent high. The reverse of a bear market is a bull market, characterized by gains of 20% or more.

While 20% is the threshold, bear markets often plummet much deeper than that over a sustained period. Although a bear market may have a few occasional “relief rallies,” the general trend is downward. Bear markets are characterized by investors’ pessimism and low confidence. During a bear market, investors often seem to ignore any good news and keep selling investments, which pushes prices even lower. Eventually, investors begin to find stocks attractively priced and start buying, officially ending the bear market.

There can be bear markets for a market as a whole, such as in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as well as for individual stocks. When investors are bearish on an individual stock, that sentiment is unlikely to affect the market as a whole. But when a market or index turns bearish, almost all stocks within it begin to decline, even if individually they’re reporting good news and growing earnings.