With stock prices down sharply last week the words “bear market” and “correction” have once again been bandied about. In response, I first offer the standard definition of both terms and then a warning. A “correction” is defined as a drop of 10% or more in major indexes like the S&P 500 from previous highs. It is called a “bear market” if the drop is more than 20%. As properly defined, both corrections and bear markets are ex post concepts – they say nothing about the future. Too frequently both terms get misinterpreted.