A lot of the time the discussion of Wall Street is focused on the overall picture – is the market going up or down? When a trend is spotted, these fluctuations in the market give it the name of either a Bull Market (going up!) or a Bear Market (the less exciting downward trend). People use these terms left and right but do you actually know what it means?
We get a lot of emails with market reports, and recently an email from Elise D Leve of Manhattan Mortgage had this to say on the subject:
So why are these animal terms used to describe action in the Stock market anyways? The terms “Bull” and “Bear” are used because of the way those animals attack. Bulls attack using an upward thrusting motion with their horns, and Bears attack by moving their powerful claws in a downward motion. So an upward market is termed a Bull market, while a downward market is called a Bear market.
We on the Blumstein Team like this theory. The market (especially in the last few years) does seem to move quickly up or down as traders make more and more aggressive moves. however, this is not the only explanation of the etymology.
Wikipedia has its own take on the subject, though admittedly it lacks from good citation. It includes the attack motion hypothesis and offers a few other ideas:
The precise origin of the phrases “bull market” and “bear market” are obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary cites an 1891 use of the term “bull market”. In French “bulle spéculative” refers to a speculative market bubble. The Online Etymology Dictionary relates the word “bull” to “inflate, swell”, and dates its stock market connotation to 1714.[14]
The word “bull” plays off the market’s returns being “full” whereas “bear” alludes to the market’s returns being “bare”. One hypothetical etymology points to London bearskin “jobbers” (market makers),[citation needed] who would sell bearskins before the bears had actually been caught in contradiction of the proverb ne vendez pas la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué (“don’t sell the bearskin before you’ve killed the bear”)—an admonition against over-optimism.[citation needed] By the time of the South Sea Bubble of 1721, the bear was also associated with short selling; jobbers would sell bearskins they did not own in anticipation of falling prices, which would enable them to buy them later for an additional profit. Bull is short for ‘bully’, in its now mostly obsolete meaning of ‘excellent’. It relates to the common use of these animals in blood sport, i.e. bear-baiting and bull-baiting. It refers to the way that the animals attack: a bull attacks upwards with its horns, while a bear swipes downwards with its paws. It relates to the speed of the animals: bulls usually charge at very high speed whereas bears normally are thought of as lazy and cautious movers—a misconception because a bear, under the right conditions, can outrun a horse.[15] They were originally used in reference to two old merchant banking families, the Barings and the Bulstrodes. Bears hibernate, while bulls do not.[citation needed]
Have any other ideas?
This Braswellian Life 
Posted on May 26, 2010
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