> Which two animals are used to represent the rise and fall of the stock market?And the answer: bull and bear. Photo credit: Investopedia.com[https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/bull-bear-market-names/].Put simply, abull market happens when stock prices are rising, and a bear market happens whenprices are declining. While the origins of these terms are unclear, oneexplanation is that a bull is used for a strong market because when a bullattacks, its horns go up; meanwhile when a bear attacks, its paws tend to swipedownwards.Today, the stock market is an incredibly complex system of buying and selling,yet its origins date back to the 17th century. In the 1600s, the Dutch EastIndia Company employed hundreds of ships to trade gold, porcelain, spices andsilks around the globe. However, they ran into a problem of funding such amassive operation. As such, the company enlisted the help of private citizens –individuals who could invest money to support the trip in exchange for a shareof the profits. This practice allowed the company to expand their business whilesupporting the invested individuals. By selling shares at ports across theworld, the Dutch East India Company unintentionally created the first stockmarket.Since then, businesses have taken up this model of collecting shares fromwilling investors to fund their business operations. While the stock market oftoday is markedly more complex than its original form, the bones of the modelare more or less the same. A new company will advertise their idea to big investors who, if they deem theidea successful, will buy the first shares and sponsor the company's InitialPublic Offering, or IPO. This will launch the company on to the official"market" where any company or individual who is interested in investing may doso. The more shares that are bought, the more successful the company appears,encouraging further investment. The more shares that are sold, however, createthe opposite appearance, and often result in more individuals selling theirinvestments. The feedback loop of buying and selling is a vicious, unpredictablebeast, and is greatly influenced by the market at large (of which companies haveno control). Learn more about the stock market below.