Wall Street History: Why Are Pessimists Called Bears?

When we talk about famed Wall Street bears you may immediately think of Doug Kass or Nouriel Roubini, but what makes them bears?

Oh, we don’t mean why is their outlook usually negative – we mean why are investors with a negative outlook called bears?

We don’t know a lot about bears, real bears that is, but they don’t seem terribly pessimistic. So in our fourth installment of our special series on Wall Street History we turned to the experts.

What did we find out? For that you’ll have to watch the video. It’s less than 2 minutes and narrated by CNBC Contributor Ron Insana.

And if you missed it last week – check out our companion video below – why are optimists called bulls?

Want even more Wall Street History? Click below:

> Why is Wall Street Called Wall Street

> NYSE Stock That's Still Around from the George Washington Era

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CNBC.com with wires.