There's a bear in there

The bears have roared through the markets recently after both the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England downgraded their growth forecasts.

There are also further concerns about the European debt crisis and a softening in Chinese economic growth.

As a result, investors moved away from risky assets, and that included sharemarkets globally. Shares on Wall Street are now in negative territory for the year, and the Japan's Nikkei has entered what many experts call a bear market, when shares are down 20 per cent since their peak.

There is a siliver lining though, especially for Australian investors, as Elio D'Amato from Lincoln Indicators explains.