Bullish / Bearish
Bull · Bear · Basic Market Sentiment Vocabulary
Bullish means expecting a price rise, bearish means expecting a price decline — the basic pair used to describe a view on a stock, sector, or the entire market.
What it is
Bullish (from "bull" = attacks with horns upward) = positive outlook, expectation of a price increase. Bearish (from "bear" = attacks with paw downward) = negative outlook, expectation of a price decline.
Used at any level: bullish on a single stock, bearish on a sector, bullish on the entire market. It refers to the direction of expected price movement — it says nothing about the magnitude of the move or the time horizon.
Bull market / Bear market — a longer-term market regime: a bull market is a period of sustained gains (conventionally defined as more than 20% above a trough), a bear market is a period of sustained decline (more than 20% below a peak).
Why track it
Sentiment (bullish/bearish) is distinct from fundamental value — the market can be bullish on a company whose fundamentals have not improved, purely on momentum or expectations. It is useful to track the divergence: strongly bullish sentiment on a company with deteriorating fundamentals is a warning signal, and vice versa.
Real-world example
An analyst with a "bullish" rating on a stock expects a price increase and typically recommends buying. Declining short interest in a stock signals that short sellers (betting on a decline) are capitulating — a bullish signal for near-term sentiment, even though it says nothing about fundamentals.
Watch out for
Do not confuse general "bullish/bearish" (direction of expectations) with a specific bull/base/bear scenario in a valuation model (see scenario analysis) — the latter is a specific, numerically grounded scenario in a DCF; the former is just a general stance.