whats a 'bear' and a 'bull'?

abaxas

Cleaver wrote: »

For the 675th time, being bullish or bearish about the housing market has nothing to with whether you are selling or buying a house. You are bullish if you think house prices will rise and you are bearish if you think they will fall.

Your question doesn't really make any sense.

Incorrect.

Everything depends on frame of reference. Yours is general, while mine (as I said above) is based on people from this board.

doire_2

Cleaver wrote: »

For the 675th time, being bullish or bearish about the housing market has nothing to with whether you are selling or buying a house. You are bullish if you think house prices will rise and you are bearish if you think they will fall.

Your question doesn't really make any sense.

Im bearish becuase i think they will fall and thats why i am not buying just yet.. So in my case it has everything to do with buying as house.

wymondham

Looks like I might be a Bear then - I want prices to fall, but I already have a house - does this make me a different type of Bear - Grizzly?

Cleaver

abaxas wrote: »

Incorrect.

Everything depends on frame of reference. Yours is general, while mine (as I said above) is based on people from this board.

Fine, if we're pedantic, you're correct. For the 40 people who use this forum, bear and bull have their own meaning. For the 7 billion other people on this planet who use language in the normal way, bull and bear means something different. Is that better?

Cleaver

doire wrote: »

Im bearish becuase i think they will fall and thats why i am not buying just yet.. So in my case it has everything to do with buying as house.

No, it hasn't nothing to do with you buying a house. You're bearish about house prices because, presumably, you've analysed the market and you think house prices will fall or are already falling. Thats a fact, regardless of whether you're planning to buy a house now, later or never.

I own a house and am also bearish about house prices over the next few years.

abaxas

Cleaver wrote: »

Fine, if we're pedantic, you're correct. For the 40 people who use this forum, bear and bull have their own meaning. For the 7 billion other people on this planet who use language in the normal way, bull and bear means something different. Is that better?

No,

All adjectives/adverbs/nouns/verbs require a frame of reference.

As well know a bear is a fluffy aggressive creature as well as someone who baits Hamish.

All depends on point of reference.

PasturesNew

doire wrote: »

In relation to housing....why is someone a bull when they aren't intending to sell their house(s) anytime soon? What does it to matter to them if prices fall for a few years?

Because they don't want to admit their house is worth £5 less today than yesterday as that reflects on the size of their manhood.

climbgirl

Bull and bear are terms used to describe upward and downward financial markets.

The names come from the way the animals strike (according to the Economist!) - a bull will strike upwards with it's horns when it attacks, whereas a bear will strike downwards with it's paw.

Cleaver

abaxas wrote: »

No,

All adjectives/adverbs/nouns/verbs require a frame of reference.

As well know a bear is a fluffy aggressive creature as well as someone who baits Hamish.

All depends on point of reference.

Abaxas, we've had a few of these discussions before where you go off in to some strange, pedantic, phrasing argument and I can't really be bothered to do it again. It's fine, let's just agree they mean whatever people want them to mean.

abaxas

Cleaver wrote: »

Abaxas, we've had a few of these discussions before where you go off in to some strange, pedantic, phrasing argument and I can't really be bothered to do it again. It's fine, let's just agree they mean whatever people want them to mean.

No, all I want you to agree to is frame of reference.

Without that it means nothing, that is by definition language.