No doubt you have heard people talk about bull markets and bear markets before. For those who don’t know what the terms mean: A bear market is nothing else but a continuous and sustained drop in the price of a wide selection of stocks over a period of time. Usually a market has to remain in a declining phase for at least two months and drop by at least 20% before described as a “bear”.

A bull market is exactly the opposite of a bear. Prices start rising and continue to rise with more than twenty percent for more than two months. Just as pessimism drives a market with dropping prices even further down, optimism drives a bull market upwards.

You shouldn’t get confuse a declining market and a normal market correction. A market correction happens after a sudden increase in the price level when people sell their stocks to take profit. It normally doesn’t last more than a few days.

It’s easy to see how one can make money in a bull market. In fact, it’s hard not to make money in such a market. But how can you make money in a declining market?

One such way is if you could accurately predict the end of the falling market and then buy a selection of top quality stock tips. Although you can use a variety of fundamental and technical indicators to help you with predicting the turning point, it remains very difficult. Even the best of traders often fail to correctly predict the turning point of a slumping market.

Another possibility is to sell stocks short. What you in effect do is to borrow stocks from a brokerage and sell them to a third party at the current high price. Once the price has dropped, you buy them back and refund the brokerage. You should only do this with stocks which are virtually sure to drop in price.

Another route open to you is to buy what is referred to as “put options” in the industry. These increase in value during a bear market when the price of the underlying share drops. Once again you have to be right about the fact that the price is going to drop, otherwise you will lose the funds you paid for the put option.

For more on the stock market subscribe to the WallStreetWindow stock trading guide.

Tags : Finance, Investing, stock market
Categories : Finance