Bull market and bear market? What is the allusion?

In 1785 in England, the terms bull and bear appeared in a book called "Guide to Small Street Trading". However, the meaning of bull and bear at that time was different from what it is now. The London Stock Exchange at that time was called the Street Exchange, or Street for short.

From the author of this book, we can see that the meaning of bulls and bears more than 200 years ago was much clearer than it is now. Bulls do not refer to people who hope that the stock market will rise, but to people who bought stocks on margin today but suffered losses.

The Dutch Tulip Exchange had invented the margin system as early as the mid-17th century. However, in London in 1785, no margin seemed to be required to buy stocks. "Bulls" could buy stocks without any money. , hoping to make a profit by selling before having to pay. According to the practice at that time, a person could buy stocks on the London Stock Exchange even if his total wealth was less than 10 pounds. For example, this person could buy stocks worth 40,000 pounds in March and the payment would be delivered in May. , the financing multiple is as high as four or five thousand times.

Before settlement, this person can try his best to sell the stocks he bought and relieve himself of the super heavy burden on his shoulders. If the entire market is full of bulls, he will not be able to find someone to take over, and will suffer heavy losses. Therefore, before paying, he must travel throughout the exchange, from one bank to another, to find someone to take over. , his heart is full of hope and fear, his expression is uncertain, he is depressed, unhappy, and has a bad temper, which is similar to the behavior of a cow, so this kind of operator is called "Cow".

More than 200 years ago, bears were not just pessimists; they were actually short sellers, that is, selling a group of stocks or bonds, agreeing to surrender at some future time what they did not actually own. things, so he is constantly looking for people, hoping to buy the securities he must hand over in the future at low prices. Therefore, he will be very happy and fully behave towards all unfortunate news, bad news, rumors that can lower the price of securities, etc. Appearing to rejoice in someone else's misfortune.

Therefore, it was easy to distinguish between bulls and bears at that time. The person with a heavy and melancholy expression must be a bull, the person who kept looking around, and the person who frightened people with bad news must be a bear. Bulls want the stock price to go up, bears want the stock price to go down. Later people may call the rising stock market a bull market and the falling stock market a bear market.