In the parlance of financial investments, the term 'bear' denotes

In investment parlance a “bear” refers to an investor who expects prices to decline and acts with pessimism about future returns. Specifically, a bear (or being bearish) denotes the belief that the price of a stock or market will decrease over time, often accompanying broader ‘bear market’ periods of falling prices and negative sentiment. This contrasts with a “bull,” who is optimistic and expects rising prices. Thus the term “bear” describes an investor’s expectation of price falls for a particular security or the market in general, matching option 1.