Wall Street is named after a wall that kept farm animals from wandering away from the settlement at the tip of Manhattan. The farming legacy lives on in the language of traders. Four animals are mentioned especially often on Wall Street: bulls and bears, hogs and sheep. Traders say: "bulls make money, bears make money, but hogs get slaughtered."A bull fights by striking up with his horns. A bull is a buyer - a person who bets on a rally and profits from a rise in prices. A bear fights by striking down with his paws. A bear is a seller - a person who bets on a decline and profits from a fall in prices.
Hogs are greedy. They get slaughtered when they trade to satisfy their greed. Some hogs buy or sell positions that are too large for them and get destroyed by a small adverse move. Other hogs overstay their positions - they keep waiting for profits to get bigger ever after the trend reverses.
Sheep are passive and fearful followers of trends, tips, and gurus. They sometimes put on a bull's horns or a bearskin and try to swagger. You recognize them by their pitiful bleating when the market becomes volatile.
Whenever the market is open, bulls are buying, bears are selling, hogs and sheep get trampled underfoot, and the undecided traders wait on the sidelines.
What am I? I can not be one of the four and stay as such, forever. To gain, I must be flexible to be either a bull or a bear. What I should never be is a hog nor a sheep. Unfortunately, I am currently losing my fight against Mark because either I was acting like a hog or a sheep, lately. Well, at least, reality has finally sank into my thick skull. As they say, you can not solve a problem if you do not recognize its existence. Now, I know I have a problem. I can now start solving it. FORE!
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