Bearish

Bearish describes an expectation that a price is going to fall. If someone says they are "bearish on oil" or "bearish on the market," they mean they think the price is heading lower, not that they hate the asset — it's purely a directional view.

The term comes from the image of a bear swiping downward with its claws, as opposed to a bull thrusting its horns upward (the origin of "bullish," the opposite term). Traders use it both as a personal opinion ("I'm bearish here") and as a label for price action itself — a "bearish chart pattern" or "bearish candle" is one whose shape suggests sellers are in control and further declines are likely.

The nuance beginners miss is that bearish is a relative, time-bound view, not a permanent fact about an asset. A trader can be bearish on a stock for the next hour while being bullish on it for the next year — day traders especially flip between these labels frequently because their view is tied to a specific chart, timeframe, and setup, not to the company or asset in general. Being bearish also doesn't automatically mean someone is trading against the asset; it only becomes a trade when paired with an action, like short selling (borrowing and selling shares to buy them back cheaper later) or buying a put option.

It's also worth separating a bearish opinion from a bearish market condition. A trader can hold a bearish view even during a broad uptrend if they think a specific stock is about to reverse, and conversely the overall market can be described as bearish (often after a sustained decline) independent of any one trader's position.