Investing term
What is Bear market?
A prolonged market decline, conventionally defined as 20%+ from recent highs.
A bear market is a sustained decline in prices, conventionally marked once a major index falls 20% or more from its recent high. They're a normal, recurring feature of investing — not a malfunction — and historically they've always eventually given way to recovery. The danger is rarely the decline itself; it's selling near the bottom and missing the rebound.
For example
The S&P 500 falling from 5,000 to 4,000 is a textbook 20% bear market — painful, but the kind of drop long-term investors have repeatedly ridden through.
Bear market is taught hands-on in Stage 3 — Know Yourself: Risk Tolerance & Time Horizons.
See the lesson →