Bull Market vs Bear Market – All You Need To Know

There are a lot of terms that are used in Equity or Share markets. Some of these terms might confuse people who are just starting to invest their money in shares or plan to do so. Not just the advanced terms like stop loss and margin can be a challenge at the beginning, but also the terms defining different trends in the market could prove difficult as well. Two such terms are Bull and Bear. Both these are the most popular share market terms and define the sentiment of the investors and the performance of the overall market. To better understand both the terms and their usage, we need to understand the differences between the bull market vs bear market.

Bull Market vs Bear Market – Meaning

We use the term bull market when the market is making highs and share prices are moving up. This phase denotes positive investor sentiment, economic growth, profit for companies, and so on. During the bull phase, investors are positive about investing in the equity for better returns, and the market rewards them fairly.

On the other hand, the bear market is the exact opposite of the bull market. During the bear phase, investor sentiments are negative, the economy may not be in good shape, and GDP numbers may be dropping. As a result, investors panic and start to withdraw their funds from the share market to invest in safer options such as Fixed Deposit (FDs) and Gold. Not just the retail investors but institutional investors also start to pull out funds from the share market, leading to a drop in the share prices.

Bull Market vs Bear Market – Differences

Following are the differences between the bull market vs bear market:

Basic Difference

The bull market occurs when the share prices and the overall market are moving up. On the other hand, the bear market is the time when shares are not performing well, and people are growing pessimistic about the market.

Origin of Terms

Both the terms come from the behavior of two animals when they attack. For instance, bull attacks by swinging its head upwards. This depicts an upward swing in the stock market. On the other hand, Bear attack downwards, depicting downward price movement.

Bull Market vs Bear Market

Indicators of Both Phases

There are inherent signs in the economy at the start and end of both phases in the market. During the bull market, one would notice that the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country will grow, and the unemployment rate would go down. Most of the sectors that contribute majorly to the GDP of the country perform extremely well and relish a positive outlook from the analysts.

Bear market, on the contrary, will see declining GDP numbers, a rise in unemployment, a poor outlook of the major sectors, and dropping investor confidence in the high-risk return instruments such as equity. Some of the notable examples of the bull market phase are the period between the 1980s-2000 and Post World War II from the 1940s to the 1950s. The global economy has also seen bear market phases like The Great Depression in 1929 and the dot-com bubble in the 2000s.

Type of Order

Investors can buy and sell in the share market irrespective of whether it is a bull or bear market. However, the market usually sees more buy orders during the bull market, while the bear market sees more sell orders. During the bull market, investors expect the share price to increase, and therefore, they start buying the shares.

On the other hand, the bear market sees more sell orders as people are looking to make money by shorting stocks. Shorting means people are expecting the price to go down and, therefore, borrow the share from the broker to sell it. And, when the price starts falling, traders or investors start to make money.

Type of Securities

During a bull market, securities that give more return for taking more risk do well. On the other hand, during the bear market, securities that are less risky do well as people have lower expectations.

Monetary and Fiscal Policy

During the bull phase, interest rates are high, and govt. tries to impose more tax to limit the disposable income in the hand of the consumers. During the bear phase, the central bank tries to lower the interest rate and tax to boost consumer spending and CAPEX (Capital Expenditure).

Margin Trading

Also known as leverage trading, margin trading occurs when investors buy the quantity of shares that they can’t afford at a certain price. As a result, the broker lends funds to investors to facilitate the buying of the share. During the bull market, when there is a better chance of share prices going up, investors follow margin trading strategy aggressively. Traders are optimistic about the return and believe they can earn a profit with this strategy.

However, taking the same leverage could be risky when there is no positive momentum in the market or, in other words, during the bear phase. The experts always suggest limiting the margin trading during the falling market as it could widen the loss in case the share price starts dropping.

Trading Options

Contrary to the belief, options trading is likely to earn more profit during a bear market. This is because volatility in the market is usually high during the bear phase, increasing the chance of directional profit.

Final Words

Whether or not the market enters the bull or bear phase depends on a number of macroeconomic factors. And, every country and market usually goes through both the markets continuously. Normally, the market is said to be in the bull phase when the stock market moves up by 20% or more. On the other hand, the bearish phase is said to start when the stock market moves down by 20% or more. Investors need to follow a different strategy in each phase to make returns.



Sanjay Borad

Sanjay Bulaki Borad

MBA-Finance, CMA, CS, Insolvency Professional, B'Com

Sanjay Borad, Founder of eFinanceManagement, is a Management Consultant with 7 years of MNC experience and 11 years in Consultancy. He caters to clients with turnovers from 200 Million to 12,000 Million, including listed entities, and has vast industry experience in over 20 sectors. Additionally, he serves as a visiting faculty for Finance and Costing in MBA Colleges and CA, CMA Coaching Classes.

1 thought on “Bull Market vs Bear Market – All You Need To Know”

  1. Thanks for the above explination sir .
    I like your simple explanation for capital budgeting techniques.
    Could you please explain stock market erms like
    Volatility
    Beta
    Variance
    Standard deviation

    Reply

Leave a Comment