Being Bearish

Being Bearish

Bearish traders aim to profit from a market’s fall because they predict it will soon collapse in value. They are now competing with bulls, who might purchase a market in the hope of making a profit. A “bear” is an investor who is pessimistic about the market and believes that prices will fall. 

What is being bearish? 

A market, financial instrument or asset is said to be bearish if you think it will move negatively. In finance, a “bearish trend” is a downward trend in the stock prices of a sector or a general decline in broad market indexes. 

To be bearish in the stock market means to believe that stock prices will fall in the future. This can be based on several factors, such as economic indicators or company-specific news. Bearish investors may take several different actions, such as selling stocks, shorting stocks, or buying put options. 

Understanding the term bearish 

A bearish investor expects a widespread decline in stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, or alternate investments like collectables. This investor expects a big and continuous decline. 

The bears and their upbeat counterparts, the bulls, battle it out for dominance of the stock market, which is always in flux. On average, the US stock market has grown by around 10% annually, including dividends, during the last hundred years or so. 

A person may have bearish viewpoints on a particular business or various assets. A trader with negative thoughts can decide whether or not to act on them. If the trader takes action, they can go short or sell the shares they already possess. Since market attitude is a significant driver of how the financial markets move, traders must be able to spot bearish trends. 

Traders who are bearish on an asset predict a decline in its price. These investors may choose to act on this conviction. They can sell their shares or trade a stock short if they decide to take action. In other words, they borrow shares from their broker, sell them on the open market, and then plan to purchase them back at a lower price when the market recovers. 

Bearish behaviour 

When there is a lot of bearish behaviour in the stock market, some investors get concerned that this could signal a market crash. However, it is crucial to remember that the stock market is notoriously volatile, and there are always ups and downs. While a market crash is always a possibility, it is no certainty. So, the best action is to keep a close eye on the market and see how it develops. 

Fear is the main emotion felt by investors who anticipate a bear market. That particular worry is that wealth will be destroyed by an approaching downturn. 

Due to their gloomy outlook on the market, bears employ several approaches that, in contrast to conventional investment strategies, benefit when the market declines and incur losses when it rises. Short selling is the most popular of these strategies.  

The buy-low, sell-high philosophy of conventional investing is the opposite of this technique. Short sellers, who think the price will fall, purchase cheap and sell higher, but in reverse, selling first and purchasing later. 

Bearish characteristics 

Bearish characteristics include: 

• a lengthy period of falling stock prices (often by at least 20% and lasting at least two months) 

• A meagre or deteriorating economy 
• Reduced investor confidence 
• Decreasing investor optimism 
• Increased unemployment 
• A widespread belief that conditions will remain gloomy for a while 

An example of being bearish 

A good example of a bear in the stock market is someone who sold his stocks in February 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the market to crash. This person would have bought  stocks in March or April when the market was at its lowest point.  

One of the most famous examples includes The “great bear of Wall Street” in the 1920s, a famous stockbroker named Jesse Livermore. His most well-known investment was a short position he took during the 1929 stock market crisis, which brought him 100 million US$. 

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