BEAR, in dealing, a term used on the Stock Exchange, and in other markets in which speculation occurs, to describe a specu lator who sells what he does not possess in the hope that before the account day he will be able to buy back at a lower price, and thus make a marginal profit. He sells for the fall, and his risk may be exceedingly great because there is no theoretic limit to the possible rise that may take place in the stock or product dealt in Powerful financial interests sometimes sell at declining prices thousands of shares of stocks that they do not own, for the very purpose of creating an unfavourable impression about the value of such stocks, in the hope of inducing others to throw their shares overboard for whatever offers are available. If these bear tactics result in heavy selling by the general public and others, then the original short sellers are able to buy back, or cover, at a considerably lower figure than they received. If one were clever enough to sell short at exactly the right moment, he could make a profit much more rapidly than by holding stocks for the advance in a rising market. This is because stocks are likely to go down in a poor market faster than they rise in a good market. The reason is that a falling market spreads fear, and fear is more suddenly contagious than hope. See also STOCK EXCHANGE;