Page "Stock market crash" Paragraph 2

There is no numerically specific definition of a stock market crash but the term commonly applies to steep double-digit percentage losses in a stock market index over a period of several days.

Crashes are often distinguished from bear markets by panic selling and abrupt, dramatic price declines.

Bear markets are periods of declining stock market prices that are measured in months or years.

While crashes are often associated with bear markets, they do not necessarily go hand in hand.

The crash of 1987, for example, did not lead to a bear market.

Likewise, the Japanese Nikkei bear market of the 1990s occurred over several years without any notable crashes.