Grin and Bear It

With the worldwide stock market debacle, Peterﾒs ﾓGrin and Bear Itﾔ is a timely box figurine. A bull market is when stock prices are climbing, and a bear market is when theyﾒre languishing. We all unfortunately know which animal is prevailing. A common myth is that the terms "bull market" and "bear market" are derived from the way these animals attack a foe - bears attack by swiping their paws downward and bulls toss their horns upward. This is a useful mnemonic, but not the true origin of the terms. Long ago, "bear skin jobbers" were known for selling bear skins that they did not own (the bears had not yet been caught). This was the original source of the term "bear." It was eventually used to describe short sellers, speculators who sold shares that they did not own. Because bull and bear baiting were once popular sports, "bulls" was understood as the opposite of "bears". Bulls were those people who brought the expectation that a stock price would rise, not fall. Carved on the base of Peterﾒs bull and bear are the major stock market indices throughout the world. Inscribed on the lid are market crash years ﾖ 1637 (the Tulip crash), 1720 (the South Sea bubble), 1929 (the Wall Street crash), 1987 (Black Monday), and 2008 (as yet unnamed). Within ﾓGrin and Bear Itﾔ are tulips, commemorating the first recorded speculative bubble, which took place in Holland in 1637, when bulbs of the newly-introduced tulip reached extraordinary highs and then suddenly collapsed.