According to Merriam-Webster, it began with an old proverb warning people not to “sell the bear’s skin before one has caught the bear".

By the eighteenth century, the shorthand “bear” was being applied to middlemen who did just that – selling bearskins they had yet to receive and hoping to make a tidy profit if the wholesale price went down by the time they eventually bought them from the trapper.

The name “bear” stuck as a byword for people betting on, and investments exhibiting, negative price moves.

A recent bear market example

There have been numerous bear markets in various investments around the world over the last decade – but the thing investors care about most is the US stock market.

A recent bear market there lasted between October 2007 and March 2009.

It was triggered by the collapse of the US housing market, which ultimately spiraled into the 2008 financial crisis – and caused several economies, including the US, UK, and eurozone, to fall into recession.