The GME situation sparked my interest and I've been researching a lot about how to effectively trade, for normal scenarios not whatever is going on with GME and others. The concept of bear markets is key vs. bull market. We've been in a bull market for the longest time. A bear doesn't necessarily mean a recession or depression.<p>I'm not by any means a financial advisor so given that and that you are on an internet forum asking, not sitting in a financial advisor or economics professor's office. From research, some things to watch for a bear market forming:<p>- fed rates going up<p>- consumer price index going up<p>- general market indexes (dow, s&p, nasdaq) and trends of distribution (selling) where 4-5 days of distribution happen over like 4-6 weeks<p>- lots of liquidity<p>- industry segment leader starts lagging market, laggards move up in price<p>- more minor points: talking heads saying things like its good time to buy (in contrast to market direction), lots of retail interest, weird anomalies with some stocks (AMC, GME, etc.)<p>A lot of these things are happening. This doesn't mean a crash per se, example years: 76, 84, 87, 90, 94, 98, 2000, 2007. Go look where the market (nasdaq, s&p, dow) topped out in those years, see if there is data from other indicators.<p>There doesn't need to be some major event or major crash, could just be a downturn for 9-12 months. There probably are economic definitions for bear, recession and depression based on length of time.