The origin of the terms ‘Bull’ and ‘Bear’ markets are based on the methods that each animal uses to fight.
A bull lowers his head and, in a thristing movement up, attempts to pierce the body of the other animal. A rising stock market is called a ‘Bull’ market.
A bear swipes with his paw in a downward motion: a falling stock market is called a ‘bear’ market. It has nothing to do with ‘short selling’ as outlined in Cecils repsonse.
This sounds very much like an after-the-fact construction. Cite?
Oh, and please include a link to the column you’re commenting.
Welcome to the Boards, S&P_trader. It’s customary to include a link to Cecil’s column so that others may read along. It’s as simple as cutting and pasting like this http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_260b.html
I’m a person interested in words, phrases, and language in general, and I think that Cecil got it right. He can show where the terms come from in the early 1700’s, with written cites–proof. If you can predate that with anything, the world of etymology will praise you.
A few learned sites with cites:
These are written by people who write our dictionaries for a living and do this as a profession.
I’ve also heard from other brokers (not etymologists) that the term ‘bullish’ comes from ‘buy low sell high’ = blsh. Don’t know just thougt it is another interesting possibility.