What is the difference between bull and bear market?

Jay: What is the difference between “bull” and a “bear market” ?
Which one do people seem to think we are in right now? What is the best strategy to make money in the stock market during each one?

Answers and Views:

Answer by (A+)
Grandma always said,”The big investors will take your money,do not put it in the stock market”

Answer by ag318pun
We are in a Bull market right now since most all
markets are going up. In a Bear market most all
markets will be going down. The problem is that
no one knows if it will continue to go up from here
or suddenly go down. Sage advice is to sell high
and buy low, but again, who knows how high is
high or how low is low?

Answer by Who
If you are REALLY clever you can make money in both

Any fool can make money in a bull market, but you have to be really clever to make money in a bear market (thats “stock market” clever, not “intelligent” clever)
Best strategy in a bear market – stay out of it
Best strategy in a bull market – depends if you are a speculator or an investor
A speculator buys shares looking for short term gains (maybe for a few months)
an investor is looking for sustained long term growth in the shares(mnimum 5-10 years)

The main thing is – do NOT try to look for the bottom of the market for when to buy, or the top of the market for when to sell, cos you will NOT get it right, and any profit is better than no profit
Think it was J P Morgan who said
“Nobody became poor by making a profit.”

And NEVER EVER borrow money to invest

The market during the 1920s was a VERY strong bull maket. ANYBODY that invested made money while it lasted. Trouble was most people thought it would last forever so kept investing. When it stopped and reversed into a bear market they lost all their profits and then some (cos they borrowed to invest)

The main thing to remember above all else is
The ONLY money in the stock markets comes from investors
For everybody that makes money somebody HAS to lose money.
So that means that for everybody that makes a million, that million HAS to come from other investors.

personally I dont think we are in either at the moment – its sort of trying to make its mind up which direction to go for the longer term, so it just goes up a bit then down a bit and so on.

Answer by Biggold
A bull market is when stocks are up and everyone is buying and selling, basically a healthy market. Whereas a bear market is when stocks are down and no one is spending their money, and that means the opposite from bull market.I’d say we are in a bear market that is moving up toward a bull market right now.

Answer by Common Sense
A bull market is when the price of shares are moving up for a long period of time.
A bear market is when shares of the general market are down by 20% or more.

Most people think we’re in a Bull market that’s about to turn to a bear market. That’s a perfect reason to believe the bull market will continue.

Buy shares in a bull market.
Sell shares (short) in a bear market.

Simple huh?
How about;
Buy low… sell high. Or
Buy high… sell higher. Or
Sell high buy back lower.

There are tons of books on this subject…. reading just a couple is rarely helpful… yet you want a couple of lines in YA to show you the way……. I’m sorry… it doesn’t work like that.