Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Understand Bear Markets

Investment and stock market lingo can be confusing sometimes, but it is important to know about the economy. Here is a brief tutorial on what a bear market is.

Know that a bear market is actually a condition in the economy when the prices of options, stocks, bonds, etc. falls. It is a period in which the negative views of the stock market actually become a self fulfilling prophecy and contribute to more slowdowns in the market and more people selling their investments.

Know that major falls in percentage points in the Dow Jones index or the S&P 500 over a sixty day period or more is a typical sign of a bear market entering. After all, those two specific indexes are benchmarks for performance measurement in the stock market.

Realize that bear markets are typically a bad time for people to initiate themselves into investing or continue doing so as very few people have great successes during a bear market. The timing is hard, and when everything is falling it is very easy to lose a lot of your investments in a very short period of time. About the only investors who can make any sort of accomplishment during a bear market are those that short sell and are in the market for a very short period of time.

By ehow.com

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