Bullish and bearish

[coffers1]

Does anyone know the origins of the terms, bull for up and bear for down?

[Quizmonster]

An old Stock Exchange phrase spoke of a 'bearskin jobber', a jobber being basically a stock-broker. The phrase referred to the old proverb about selling the bearskin before you'd succeeded in killing the bear! That's what a bearskin jobber hoped to do.
A bear nowadays is an investor who anticipates a fall in stock prices and invests accordingly. As a result, prices do start to fall.  A bull anticipates the opposite...namely, that prices will rise...and speculates on that basis, resulting in an actual price-rise for shares. Both words originated in these senses in the 18th century.