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Strategies & Market Trends : Classic TA Workplace -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AllansAlias who wrote (21456)	11/17/2001 4:58:03 PM
From: bcrafty	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 209892

Allan, here's what I was referring to I think I found the "definition" I was referring to, that is, a bear market is "when the general market or a particular stock falls for a prolonged period, usually by 20% or more." I thought there was a more technical one like Bernie's, but I couldn't find any. If that is a generally accepted or widely used definition than that would explain those pronouncements I heard last November as the $COMPQ had fallen more than 20% from the September 2000 high. The reason I asked is because I read or hear people all the time saying "we're still in a bear market" or "we've entered a new bull market." Perhaps those people don't realize that these kinds of statements presume that their position is a generally accepted fact rather than an opinion, which often leads to communication problems. If people are too vague then we run into a scenario like the one where the Red Queen in "Alice in Wonderland" proclaimed "the words mean what I say they mean" unless people explain themselves well, such as "we're still in a bear market because . . . (reason 1, reason 2, reason 3) etc." I also found the following on Motley Fool: "Vanguard says, 'One generally accepted definition of a bear market in stocks is a price decline of 20% or more over at least a two-month period.' Ultra Financial Systems defines it 'as a market that loses 15% as measured by a stock market index such as the Standard and Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) which consists of the stock prices of 500 U.S. corporations.' And About.com has this to say on the topic: 'A common rule of thumb states that if the market is down 10%, it's a Market Correction, and if it's down 20%, it's a Bear Market.' Do you find any of these statements to be a useful rule of thumb, or are they too simplistic?