Bull Market

A financial market of a certain group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. The term "bull market" is most often used in respect to the stock market, but really can be applied to anything that is traded, such as bonds, currencies, commodities, etc. A bullish market trend in the stock market often begins before the general economy shows clear signs of recovery. A bull market is associated with increasing investor confidence, and increased investing in anticipation of future price increases.

Bull markets are characterized by optimism, investor confidence and expectations that strong results will continue. Of course, no bull market can last forever, and sooner or later a bear market (in which prices fall) will come. It's tough if not impossible to predict consistently when the trends in the market will change. Part of the difficulty is that psychological effects and speculation can sometimes play a large (if not dominant) role in the markets. The extreme on the high end is a stock-market bubble, and on the low end a crash.