the.com/bear market
when the market decides optimism was a phase, not a personality.
means a prolonged period where prices fall 20% or more from recent highs, and pessimism becomes the house style.
from traders link it to bears swiping downward with their claws, the mirror image of bulls thrusting horns upward — the terms date to 1700s london stock trading slang.
official threshold20% drop from a recent peak
average lengthabout 9-10 months historically
psychological twinoften paired with a recession, not always