"Are we in a bear market?" This is kind of the issue with the arguments about if we are in a "bear market" or not. Everyone's definition is literally different. If the logic is that "X% of correction = bear market" then by that definition we had 6 "bear markets" in the 2 year span of 2015-2017 as we rose from $200-$20,000. I don't consider the 6 "corrections" in 2017 as different, distinct, "bear markets" because most of them only lasted a few weeks before continuation to new highs. Just as there are smaller cycles within larger cycles, there are different degrees of "corrections" within any larger secular bull trend. The "degree" of a correction is dependent on where we are in a particular cycle, and is based on BOTH time and price. A 40% drop that recovers in 5-6 months, after which we make new ATH's is not the same as an 85% drop that takes three years to recover from. The former, despite it's depth, was just a larger correction within a bull market (imo), because the trend resumed to the upside some months later. This makes it distinctly different from a correction that is 70+%, which lasts for 2 years, or a correction that is 80+%, that lasts for 5 years. Both of those would be corrections of a larger "degree". The "bear markets" that happen AFTER a blow off top are always the most brutal, usually both in time and price. Everything else is usually a correction of a "smaller degree". For example, in the chart below: The two "bear markets" that followed blow off tops are marked in ORANGE, and these were the most devastating both in terms of price and time. Each dropped 85% from the highs and took 1100+ days to recover to new highs from. The two "bear markets" in BLUE were both "mid-cycle corrections", still pretty deep at 70-75% depth, but both recovered back to new highs in a shorter amount of time (500-800 days). All the smaller corrections in RED are corrections of an even smaller degree than the blue or orange. These lasted for a number of weeks or months, with the longest lasting around 240 days until new highs, and corrected anywhere between 20% to 40%. Some people may call every "deep" correction over X% a "bear market" but that leaves out a ton of important context because not all "bear markets" are the same and you shouldn't position the same way during every "bear market" either. Some are just aggressive shakeouts in a stronger up-trend where you would want to be buying the dip while some are corrections of a much higher "degree" where it probably makes more sense to sit on your hands and wait. I've seen some on here argue that we are in a "bear market" but are now saying they believe we are close to the end of it and they are looking to "buy the dip". Was this really a "bear market" if we were at all time highs literally just 3 months ago and you expect us to see new highs soon? The degree of the correction matters more than the verbiage. What some might call a "bear market" may be what others simply call a "deep correction" within a larger uptrend. Like all things in markets there is a LOT of nuance, it is not as simple as "are we in a bear market?"(CrediBULL Crypto)