Just like the gravitational pull governs the activities on Planet Earth and in the absence of which, everything would be support less and fall to pieces, certain forces constantly act and react on each other to give shape to the activities of the share market. The term bull and bear market are easily mentioned, but they are very difficult to comprehend. They are supreme secrets of the Exchange, and which force will govern at what time and for how long, none can say with precision. Like the one who confidently forecasts weather only to observe subsequently its inadequacies, these runs are difficult to charter. When they arrive, one experiences their outcomes, enjoys their benefits or suffers losses as the cases may be.

This is not the subject of a casual investor. The veterans of the exchange and the day trader have experienced such runs and faced the consequences. The driving factors of these trends are buyers and sellers they are thus stamped. This description is not given to the Exchange as a whole, but to specific sectors or shares.

Imagine a situation where an investor, for the reasons best known, suddenly grows in confidence and goes on the buying spree. Now imagine such a situation for thousands of investors who swarm on particular stocks and buy them in anticipation of securing a capital gain. This is not a tale of fantasy, such events have taken place in the history, and the longest runs were experienced in the 1990s. The US and the other global markets saw an amazing growth spurt ever experienced in the history of trade and commerce. Unprecedented conditions prevailed.

The opposite happens in a bear market. The worried investors are downloading their shares, expecting losses and further losses. This happens not on account of the casual fall in the prices of the shares, and the trend continues for a long time and the selling spree remains unabated. As for the US markets, the history of 1930-32 is remembered with awe and that led to the Great Depression. The reasons for such depression could be anything, wars, energy crises and the unemployment surge and the like. Having gone through all these phases, yet the US market is considered as a bull market and hence it is known as the land of opportunities.

Analysts and researches try to go to the root cause of these trends but fail to anticipate the conditions precisely. This is the case with all stock market developments. The only interesting part of the exercise is one researcher tries to outsmart the other and proves how the findings and conclusions of the other are wrong. The game is kept interesting, and the investor kept guessing as ever. The near accurate calculation, giving credence to the historical trends is that the cycle lasts about 4 years, the former taking away the major share of the bull-bear cycle, 3 years, and the later being satisfied with 1 year.

For the investor, the real testing times are the bear markets. The survival instinct and the loss prospects cloud the investor's vision and one commits mistakes and blunders during this period. Sudden rallies of share prices during this run are the camouflaging acts by the smart profit-seekers. The interplay of emotions, greed and fear is the worst development that can seize an investor. Under such conditions everything goes wrong and the day trading investor suffers a series of losses. With the sense of timing clouded, the investor is confused. Such an individual can not take the correct decision, and even the old war horses of the Exchange fail in their endeavors to find stability.