第288期：股票熊市为什么叫bear market？

你知道为什么股票市场分为牛市和熊市吗？为什么要选用bull和bear这两种动物的意向命名？今天我们来了解一下这两个词的历史。

关于bull market（牛市）和bear market（熊市）名字的来源，从来没有一个统一的说法。常见的有至少三种解释（限于篇幅，本文不详细讲解每个来源说法。）

1. Method of attack 攻击方法说

这个说法认为牛和熊这两种动物的攻击方式不同，牛低头用角向上挑刺敌人，熊用掌向下拍击敌人。

When
a bull attacks, it lowers its head, and uses its horns to thrust its
opponent up in the air. Hence, a bull market comes out of the market
having been low, and then rapidly climbing.

On the other hand, when a bear attacks, it swipes its massive paws
down, bearing down (ha, pun) on its opponent with full force. Therefore,
it makes sense that a bear market is one that plummets.

这种说法最简单。姑妄听之吧。

2. Bear and Bull Baiting 斗熊、斗牛活动

这个起源的故事讲起来很残忍。作为动物保护主义者，佛老都不忍心翻译。大家自己看一段英文介绍吧。

Arenas
full of people would sit back and watch either a bull or bear be
chained in the middle of a ring, and then attacked by a pack of dogs.
This practice began as early as the late 1500s, and wasn’t banned in
England until 1835.

下图是牛熊斗斗现场。更残忍的如上面这段英文说的那样。人类真是最凶残的动物！

3. Bulletin Board at The London Stock Exchange

这个说法认为bull和bear这两种说法来自17世纪建立的伦敦证券交易市场。当时的交易员要把买单写在纸上贴在一个公告板(bulletin board）上，人们之间叫白了就把bulletin说成了bull. 如果bulletin board上买单纸片空了, 英语叫bare（空的，光秃秃的），后来也叫白了，就成了bear.

此外还有其他几种说法，不一一列举了。

知道了熊市和牛市英语说法的来历，我们来引申一下，学两个相关的词：bullish和bearish.

Bearish是个形容词，意思就是“熊市的、看跌的”。showing or expecting a fall in the prices of shares.

Bullish的意思跟bearish正相反，就像bull market相对于bear market一样。

从“看跌、看空”这个意思，引申出“悲观的”意思。从“牛市、看涨”的意思又引申出“乐观的“意思。

来看个例句：

If you had sold when everyone was crazy bullish, and bought when everyone was crazy bearish, you would not have done badly over the years.

如果你在所有人都极度看好时卖出（股票），在大家都极度看空时买入，这几年下来你的收益应该不错。