Wall Street, the famous financial area of New York, is named after a wall built in Manhattan
in the early settlement days, to stop animals wandering. Today the farming connection
lives on in the language of the brokers; namely bulls, bears, hogs and sheep.
Bulls are buyers: a bull fights by striking upwards with his horns. A bear, on the other
hand, fights by striking with his paws. Bulls look up, bears look down, and the price
is a constant fight between the two. So, who are the hogs and sheep? These are the
majority of investors trampled underfoot. A hog is greedy and takes positions that
are too large and is wiped out by small, adverse moves, or holds profits for too long in
the hope that prices will go on for ever. Sheep are passive and fearful followers of the
media, gurus, brokers and friends. They bleat at everyone when they lose, and cannot
accept they were responsible.
The farming analogy is very close to what happens in reality. Only strong bulls and
bears make money. The crowd-following characteristics of the sheep, combined with
the greed of the hog, characterises most losing traders in the market.
