what is a bull market 
 bull market is the term used to describe a financial market in which prices are rising or are expected to rise it is most often used to refer to the stock market but can be applied to anything that is traded such as bonds real estate currencies and commodities prices of securities rise and fall continuously during trading but a bull market occurs over extended periods of time during which a large portion of security prices rise overall bull markets tend to last for numerous months or even years investopedia xiaojie liuunderstanding bull marketsbull markets are characterized by optimism investor confidence and expectations that strong results should continue for an extended period of time it is difficult to predict consistently when trends in the market might change part of the difficulty is due to the large roles that psychological effects and speculation can sometimes play in investing no specific and universal metric identifies a bull market nonetheless the most common gauge used is a 20 or more rise in stock prices from recent lows since the start of bull markets are tough to pinpoint in the moment analysts typically acknowledge them after they ve begun a notable bull market in recent history occurred during the period between 2003 and 2007 at this time the s p 500 increased by a significant margin after a previous decline as the 2008 financial crisis took effect major declines occurred putting a stop to the bull market run 12bull markets generally start when the economy is strengthening or is already strong they tend to coincide with a strong gross domestic product gdp a drop in unemployment and a rise in corporate profits growing investor confidence can keep bull markets moving the overall demand for stocks is positive along with the overall tone of the market however supply and demand for securities may seesaw e g supply will be weak while demand will be strong some investors will be eager to buy securities while few will be willing to sell in a bull market investors are more willing to take part to gain profits during a bull market several characteristics can be observed these include the longest bull market in the history of the s p 500 index lasted from march 2009 to february 2020 and saw the index gain over 300 3 it was characterized by strong earnings growth low interest rates and investor optimism in addition it was relatively volatile with several corrections and pullbacks along the way the technology sector significantly outperformed the broader market during this bull market 