A period of time during which sales of a product or business activity increases very rapidly. In the stock market, booms are associated with bull markets, whereas busts are associated with bear markets. The cyclical nature of the market and the economy in general suggests that every strong economic growth bull market in history has been followed by a sluggish low growth bear market.


Stocks that suddenly become very popular and gain strong elevated market profits are the result of a stock boom. An example of this is the internet technologies boom or "dot-com bubble" that occurred during the late '90s. This was one of the most famous booms in stock market history. As often occurs in a boom-and-bust cycle, this boom was followed by one of the biggest busts in history. This occurs because the growth that takes place in a boom is rarely maintained and backed up by actual company profits.

  1. Economy

  2. Business Cycle

    The fluctuations in economic activity that an economy experiences ...
  3. Demographic Dividend

  4. Boomlet

    A small but sharp increase in business activity, political activity ...
  5. Rebound

  6. Bear

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