Level 7 • FundSage Academy
Market Cycles
•Updated for FY 2025-26•By FundSageAI Quantitative Research Team
Bull markets, corrections, and why timing the market is harder than staying invested through it.
What You Will Learn in This Level
Level 7 provides actionable mutual fund frameworks calibrated for Indian retail investors. Mastering these lessons protects your portfolio from common psychological traps, hidden expense drag, and improper asset allocation.
✓Bull Market Explained: A rising market doesn't mean rising safety — stick to your asset allocation rather than increasing risk because things feel good.
✓Bear Market Explained: A bear market is when your SIP buys the most units for your money — stopping it defeats the purpose.
✓Corrections vs Crashes: Corrections are routine market weather; crashes are rare storms — neither is a reason to abandon a long-term plan.
✓How Market Recovery Works: Recoveries are rarely a straight line up — a dip within a recovery isn't automatically a new decline.
Lessons in Level 7
1
Bull Market Explained
Intermediate · 4 min read
2
Bear Market Explained
Intermediate · 4 min read
3
Corrections vs Crashes
Intermediate · 5 min read
4
How Market Recovery Works
Intermediate · 4 min read
5
Understanding Volatility
Intermediate · 4 min read
6
Drawdowns Explained
Intermediate · 4 min read
7
Staying Invested Through Market Cycles
Intermediate · 5 min read
Frequently Asked Questions: Market Cycles
How long do bull markets typically last?
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There's no fixed duration — historically, Indian equity bull markets have lasted anywhere from under a year to several years, and their length isn't predictable in advance, which is one reason trying to time an exit near the top is difficult.
Should I invest more during a bull market?
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Increasing investments purely because the market is rising, rather than because your income or goals have changed, is a common bias (see Fear vs Greed) — it's generally better to follow a pre-set investment plan than to chase the current trend.
What comes after a bull market?
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Bull markets are typically followed by a correction, a bear market, or a period of consolidation — markets move in cycles, and no bull run has historically continued forever without some pullback.
Is a bull market the same as a bubble?
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Not necessarily — a bull market reflects genuine improving fundamentals and earnings growth, while a bubble is when prices rise far beyond what fundamentals justify, driven mainly by speculation. Bull markets can, but don't always, turn into bubbles in their later stages.
How is a bear market different from a correction or crash?
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A bear market is typically defined by its magnitude (20%+ decline) and duration (weeks to months or longer), while a correction is a smaller, often shorter dip (commonly 10-20%) and a crash is a very sudden, sharp fall over days — see Corrections vs Crashes for the detailed comparison.