Investment Terms: Bullish and Bearish – What Do They Mean?

When watching the news it is almost impossible not to hear these terms. Every financial analyst will say the market is looking bearish or bullish when talking about wall street. These terms sound almost silly don’t they? Confused the hell out of me when I first heard them on tv. Mind you, when I first heard these terms the internet was just getting on its feet and cell phones were not a wide spread thing as they are now. Showing my age with that sentence there but now-a-days so much information is at your fingertips that you can look up anything you want.

The term bearish means the market is looking a little low right now. Prices are dropping and as an investor you should be wary. Also, in terms of an investor being called bearish or a “Bear”, that means you believe prices will go down. To some investors a bearish market is good for them. I myself would fall into this category as when my stocks drop in price I tend to buy more of them. I’m in it for the dividends so stock prices really do not concern me too much.

The term bullish means the market is looking up and that prices are good. This is a good sign for a company if someone says it is bullish right now. As an investor, this can be good news for you as who doesn’t like seeing their portfolio in the green huh? For this category you would call yourself a bull.

Some trading platforms will have an indicator you can use to see where a stock is at with either of these terms. These are good indicators when researching a stock. For me, the Bearish stock looks enticing as that usually means I can get it for a good price. The other one tells me I probably should wait a bit and see if it drops. Now, this can be a double-edged sword when dealing with a stock that is bullish as that stop might keep rising and rising and you would of missed out on a good buy-in price. Something to consider being buying or waiting.