What is Bull & Bear Market?

A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices and optimism; a bear market is sustained decline — each demands a different playbook.

A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices supported by optimism and buying pressure; a bear market is a sustained decline driven by pessimism and selling. The images come from how each animal attacks — a bull thrusts its horns upward, a bear swipes downward. In stocks and crypto, a fall of roughly 20% from a peak is conventionally called a bear market. In forex the terms are always relative: a bear market in EUR/USD is simultaneously a bull market for the dollar against the euro.

The distinction matters because each environment rewards different behaviour. In a bull market, buying pullbacks works and shorts get squeezed; in a bear market, rallies are selling opportunities and bottom-picking is how accounts die. Bear phases also behave differently — falls tend to be faster and more violent than rises, and the sharpest one-day rallies in history occurred inside bear markets. Identify the regime from structure on the higher timeframes first, then choose tactics that fit it.