I got this e-mail almost 2 years ago from "Sharetrakin Support Team": How did the bull and bear come to be symbols of the stock market? Evidently,"bear skin jobbers" were known for selling bear skins that they did not own; i.e., the bears had not yet been caught. This was the original source of the term "bear." This term eventually was used to describe short sellers, speculators who sold shares that they did not own, bought after a price drop, and then delivered the shares. The term "bull" came from the the sports of baiting both bears and bulls. Bulls were seen as being the opposite of bears. Thus, the bear describes the opposite stock market climate. People buy stocks in the expectation that stocks will rise, not fall. A bull is someone who believes the stock market will go up and a bear is someone who believes the stock market will go down. A bull market is a rising market and a bear market is a falling market. Where does bull and bear come from? Some sources say that a bull knocks you up in the air (rising market) and a bear knocks you down (falling market). However, there were some old proverbs floating around Europe during the 1700's. In Germany, the saying was "Don't sell the bear-skin before you have killed the bear". In Holland, they said "Don't sell the bearskin before the bear is dead". In Italy, they said "Don't sell the bearskin before you have caught the bear". In England, the saying was "Don't sell the bearskin before the bear is caught". In all cases, they said the same thing, "Don't sell something you don't have".
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