What is Bull Market?

A bull market is when stock prices rise 20% or more from a recent low, sustained over weeks or months, with investor confidence running high. In even simpler terms: prices go up, everyone feels like a genius, and it ends eventually. The trick is knowing when 'eventually' is.

Historical U.S. bull markets have lasted anywhere from 1 to 11 years, with an average of around 4-5 years. The longest bull market in modern history ran from 2009 to 2020 — over a decade. Unfortunately, no one rings a bell when it ends.

Bull markets are usually driven by strong economic growth, low unemployment, low interest rates, and rising corporate earnings. Investor confidence creates a self-fulfilling loop: optimism drives buying, buying drives prices up, higher prices drive more optimism. It works great — right up until it doesn't.

A bull market is characterized by rising prices (up 20%+) and investor optimism. A bear market is the opposite: prices fall 20%+ from a recent high, fear replaces greed, and everyone discovers they were much more risk-tolerant in theory than in practice.

The classic advice: stay invested, don't try to time the top, and resist the urge to buy increasingly speculative assets just because everything seems to be going up. In practice: most investors get greedy near the top, overextend, and then panic-sell at the bottom of the correction that inevitably follows.

The formal definition of a bull market is a financial market in which prices rise 20% or more from a recent low and continue to climb over a sustained period — typically months or years. More broadly, it describes any period of widespread optimism, rising asset prices, and strong economic fundamentals. The term originates from the way a bull attacks: thrusting upward with its horns.