Bull Market vs. Bear Market: What It Means
Updated: May 2026 | By Jenna Lofton, StockHitter.com
Jenna’s Bottom Line
Bull markets reward patience. Bear markets reward preparation. The investors who build serious wealth over time are not the ones who predicted which was coming. They are the ones who had a plan for both before either arrived.
Key Takeaways
- A bull market is a rise of 20 percent or more from a recent low. A bear market is a decline of 20 percent or more from a recent high.
- The average bull market lasts approximately 6.6 years and gains roughly 339 percent. The average bear market lasts about 1.3 years and loses roughly 38 percent.
- Bull markets move through three emotional stages: skepticism, confidence, and euphoria. Knowing which stage you are in helps you calibrate risk.
- Bear markets end when pessimism reaches maximum. The investors who buy at that point generate the best long-term returns.
- The single most expensive mistake investors make is selling during a bear market and waiting too long to re-enter. The math on missing the recovery is brutal.
What a Bull Market Is
A bull market is formally defined as a sustained rise of 20 percent or more from a recent low. The term originated from the way a bull attacks, thrusting its horns upward. It has been applied to rising markets for over a century.
In practice, bull markets feel less like a single event and more like a long, uneven climb interrupted by corrections that feel alarming but resolve upward. Most investors do not realize they are in a bull market until it has been running for a year or more.
Bull markets are the historical default condition of equity markets. The S&P 500 has spent far more time in bull markets than bear markets over any meaningful time horizon. Understanding this is the foundation of long-term investing conviction.
What a Bear Market Is
A bear market is a decline of 20 percent or more from a recent high, sustained over at least two months. The term comes from the way a bear attacks, swiping its paws downward.
The two-month requirement matters. A sharp crash that recovers quickly, like the 34 percent S&P 500 decline in February and March 2020 that recovered within months, technically meets the price threshold but behaves very differently from a grinding multi-