The terms bull and bear markets are used to describe the general trend of either increasing or decreasing stick prices. Of course stock prices fluctuate during the course of any trading day. The bear and bull market descriptors describe a trend over a longer period. Some analysts suggest the minimum time period is two months and the general price change needs to be plus or minus twenty percent. You just seen gold stocks start a new bull market move.

A bull market describes a market where prices are generally on the increase. A bull market often starts when market confidence is at its lowest. At this time investor confidence starts to increase and there is an expectation gains will be made on rising stock prices. This is happening now in the gold stocks market.

A bear market trend on the other hand is a trend in a downward direction. The entire market goes down, not just an individual stock.

One of the most memorable bear markets in recent history followed the stock market crash of 1929. In the three years that followed nearly 90% of stock values were wiped out. But obviously things did improve.

The patterns seen in a bear market tend to be a very big initial drop in values, which pushes a lot of the speculators out of the market. This is followed by a temporary period of stock price increases before the market starts to decline again over a longer period.

But with any cycle after the decreases of the bear market come the rises of the bull market. It is well known that to make money on stocks you try to buy low and sell high. However no one knows where a market will head and knowing when to buy or sell is not easy.

Many investors forget markets are cyclical. It is possible to make money in both bull markets and bear markets but to do so requires some understanding of what sort of market you are investing in. Having a list of the 50 hottest stocks always helps in a upward moving market.