Most investors lose money—and many are wiped out—in bear markets.

This chapter, which could as well have been called the Investor's Basic Survival Guide for Bear Encounters, describes the different kinds of bears.

It can be a matter of life and death for hikers to know which species of bear- territory they are invading. Similarly, investors should learn to distinguish the kind of bear attacks the market faces.

If you're in the Rockies, you watch out for black bears and, most important of all, grizzlies; in Alaska, you look for Kodiaks and polar bears; in Churchill, Manitoba, you know when the polar bears are coming—by the hundreds—and you prepare accordingly.

Know Your Bear!

Despite their seeming playfulness, these are deadly serious classifications.

They can be as crucial for investors' wealth as the differences in size, gender, and breed of bear can be for hikers who come upon actual bears.

Why try to classify market slumps into such bear categories?

Because most of the literature on bear markets lumps all downturns together, and this makes it difficult for novices to understand the nature of bear risks at any given time.

There are five classifications of Furry Financial Furies
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