What’s the difference between a short-term “market correction” and a “bear market” or a “crash”? A joke says that the difference is not how far stocks have fallen, or for how long: “A correction is when you lose money and a bear market is when I lose money.” The “correction” joke has been cited in print since at least 2005 and appears to be most popular in Australia.
A similar phrase—“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose your job”—has been cited in print since 1954. “Minor surgery is surgery that happens to someone else” is another similarly themed expression.
The Free Dictionary
Market Correction
A drop in the price of a security when that security has been overbought and therefore overpriced. Market corrections are usually short-term and are necessary for the stability of the security.
Google Groups: AIII (Association of Indian Individual Investors)
From: “Ravindran, Padmanabhan”
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:31:35 +0530
Local: Tues, Jun 21 2005 8:01 am
Subject: Money Misery Madness
A correction is when you lose money; a crash is when I lose money.
Larry Adler, businessman
The Age (Melbourne)
Bad cliches abound as investors herd towards the cliff
Marcus Padley
June 10, 2006
(...)
“What’s the difference between a correction and a crash? A correction is when you lose money, a crash is when I lose money”.
Courier Mail (Australia)
Markets were all ordinary
by Neil Wiseman From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) July 22, 2007 12:00AM
(...)
By the end of the week, with the shock waves starting to subside and the rationalist commentators holding sway, reports were referring to a “correction” rather than a crash. FAI chief Larry Adler understood the nuance: “A crash is when I lose money. A correction is when you lose money.”
Aussie Stock Forums
Timmy
18th-January-2008, 10:56 AM
Re: Correction or crash?
If there is going to be a poll the definitions need to be correct first.
A correction is when you lose money.
A crash is when I lose money.
Barron’s
Getting Technical | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010
Correction or Bear Market?
By MICHAEL KAHN
(...)
There is an old joke on Wall Street, again paraphrased, that a correction is when you lose money and a bear market is when I lose money. It means that labels of bull and bear are most often dependent on one’s investment time frame and aggressiveness.
New York City • Banking/Finance/Insurance • Sunday, December 05, 2010 • Permalink