You hear people mention bulls and bears when talking about the market, whether it’s cryptos or stocks, it just doesn’t make sense. You’d just end up wondering “what do bulls and bears have to do with the market?”
Yeah, I was just as confused as you are. But worry not, I got you covered. We’ll discuss exactly what they mean and the different scenarios where they’d apply.
Bull or Bullish
The term bull or bullish actually came from a bull’s upward motion when attacking or charging with its horn, and in the market, an upward trend is a good thing, and so it was associated with positive trends or events in the market.
It could also be a view or speculation that a stock or crypto will bring people opportunities and good returns, or just simply because they feel good about it. Without necessarily seeing proof or evidence.
It’s either an educated guess and observation or just based on their own emotion and level of understanding. When you hear people say “bulls are in control” or “I am bullish about this and that”, it just means that the price of the market is having an uptrend. Or that things are looking good, and things are starting to improve.
Bear or Bearish
It should be obvious by now that bear or bearish is the opposite of bullish. While bullish refers to positive happenings and observation, bears or bearish simply means that things are not looking great.
The term for it came from a bear’s downward slash when attacking with its claws. And we all know that a downward trend in the market is negative and bad. It would mean a crash on the market or negative hindsight due to some unfortunate news and events that would affect the price of assets, causing them to plummet.
Both stock and crypto market is volatile, or in other words, unstable and there are no guarantees when investing or doing trades. Factors such as supply, demand, competition, and popularity affect the market price’s movement, whether it’s an uptrend or a downtrend.
And having simplified terms to understand situations and scenarios helps make it more understandable and more comprehensive.
As mentioned, they are called as such because of how they actually look. See below:
Apeish is just for satire. When Lambo?
Fun Fact
Anatoly Liberman, a linguist at the University of Minnesota, stated that the use of the term bulls and bears originated in Britain in the early 18th century; It was used to describe or refer to Investment optimists and pessimists and was later adopted by the modern financial industry, including the stock and crypto markets.
Even though these terms (bullish and bearish) have been around for decades, people still can’t agree on their exact meaning. But nothing else really matters as long as you understand the gist of it.
Summary
The next time you hear someone mention these terms, you won’t have to keep nodding your head and pretending that you understand them.
Familiarizing yourself with the lingo of the industry you’re trying to partake in helps you understand the overall context of the matter. Simply put, bulls are good, and bears are bad, and that’s it!
