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第 48 课:Stock Market: The Business of Investing-3

But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England.

Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing.

In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up.

A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly, up.

Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected.

This would sharply increase the value of the stock. Investors are hoping for a windfall.

The word windfall comes from England of centuries ago. There, poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich land owners.

But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly.