Article: No bull.(origin of the terms bull market and bear market)(Brief Article)

When stock markets are rising, it's called a "bull" market; when the market is sinking it's called a "bear" market. There's a fair bit of disagreement about the origins of the words. Some say that "bear" originated in a proverb that goes along the lines of, "Don't sell the bearskin before you've caught the bear." This is similar to "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched." Others say that, "bear skin jobbers" were infamous for selling bearskins that they did not own; the bears had not yet been caught and killed. This term eventually was used to describe short sellers, speculators who sell shares that they do not own, hoping to buy them after a price drop, and ...

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