Bear Market

Definition

A prolonged period when stock prices fall and investors pretend they saw it coming all along. Named after bears because, like encountering an actual bear, the best strategy is to play dead and hope it goes away before it eats your retirement fund.

Example Usage

"We're in a bear market, which means my financial advisor has stopped returning my calls and my portfolio looks like a ski slope."

Related Terms

Intermediate

buyout

When one party acquires a controlling stake in a company by purchasing enough shares to tell everyone else to pack their desk plants. It's the corporate equivalent of buying out your roommate's lease, except with more lawyers, bigger numbers, and significantly less drama about who gets the couch. Can be friendly (management buyout) or hostile (surprise, you work for someone else now).

💰 Finance / Accounting

Advanced

actuarial

Relating to those mysterious number wizards called actuaries who calculate risk, probability, and future costs using mathematics that would make most people weep. It's the science of predicting when you'll die, how likely your house is to burn down, and how much money a pension fund needs—cheerful stuff. If it involves insurance, statistics, and existential dread, it's probably actuarial.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

financials

The numbers-heavy documents that reveal whether a company is actually making money or just really good at spending investor cash. It's the collective term for financial statements like balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports that accountants love and everyone else pretends to understand. Essentially, it's where the truth about a business's health lives, buried under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

sunk cost

Money already spent that cannot be recovered and therefore should not factor into future decisions, though humans are psychologically terrible at ignoring it. Your brain keeps asking 'but what about the money we already spent?' and economics keeps answering 'it's gone, move on.'

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

vendor financing

When a supplier extends credit or loans to help customers buy their products, effectively becoming a bank out of desperation to make sales. It's what happens when your product is so expensive that customers need financing just to afford it.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

payback

The magical moment when an investment stops being a money pit and actually returns something positive, also known as ROI's less sophisticated cousin. In finance, it's the break-even point where you finally stop losing money; in life, it's revenge served cold. Either way, someone's getting their due.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Translate This Term

See “Bear Market” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

Prognosis

A doctor's prediction about how your illness will play out, which ranges from "you will be fine" to a long pause followe...