Do bears shit in the woods? Whenever the market declines and enough pain is felt, the bulls receive deep sympathy and often times, we hear rumors of an impending “capitulation”. After the market had only pulled back 5% from the 3-year high recorded the first week of May, commentators were already throwing around the “C” word. To say the least that was premature, there never was a washout and the market continued to slide for another month. When stocks are dropping, there is a crowd that hopes for the mythical “capitulation” to signal a reversal, get the pain over with and put the worst behind them. Of course, these events are very rare and they are not required to turn stocks around.  So back to the title question….are capitulations only reserved for bulls? They are not, they just have different names and are commonly referred to as “short covering rallies” and “short squeezes.”  If traditional capitulations are good for stocks, then are bearish capitulations bad for stocks? Hardly - they are great for stocks and lately they have been much more common.