A bear market is a period of falling prices in which a market trades at least 20 percent below its last high. The S&P 500 has gone through exactly 27 bear markets since 1928; on average prices fell 35 percent, and 9.4 months passed from peak to trough. As of November 5, 2026, Bitcoin is in the middle of a bear market, 39 percent below its record from October 2025. The Nasdaq 100 is in a correction, 14.7 percent off its high, while the S&P 500 and the DAX are far from the threshold.
Here you will learn what the term bear market means and where it comes from, how long bear markets in stocks and Bitcoin have lasted, how to recognise the end and what you can do as an investor in this phase of the market. The figures are based on daily closing prices of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, DAX, Bitcoin and Ethereum. How close the broad stock market is to a crash is covered in our overview of the stock market crash 2026.
Bear market: the key points
- Definition: a bear market begins when a market falls 20 percent or more below its last high. Between 10 and 20 percent it is called a correction.
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