Sherwood Park News has reported:

For Elton Davidge, September stress begins at the arena, where hockey tryouts can unsettle players, parents and coaches. The Sherwood Park wealth adviser says the uncertainty surrounding roster decisions resembles the anxiety investors feel during periods of market weakness, and argues that patience and a long-term plan can help in both settings.

Davidge writes that he has been awake at 4 a.m., his mind running through outcomes beyond his control. In his experience, hockey tryouts start in mid-August and continue well into autumn, making September the most stressful month of the year. Over 13 years, he has experienced the season as a coach, board director, association president and father, with each role bringing its own late-night worries.

As a coach, he says, the questions include whether the right players were selected and how to tell a family friend their child has been released while hoping to share a barbecue the following summer. As a director or association president, he wants to respond with empathy to families receiving difficult news while reminding them that the program can still offer a good place to develop, even if a player is not on the roster they expected.

For a parent, Davidge describes the experience as agonizing powerlessness. He wonders what an evaluator wrote, whether they noticed a backcheck or saw a slash. Rumours among parents add to the strain, including talk of who has moved to town, who may switch leagues and whether a player returning from junior hockey could push others down a line.

Davidge says that when he goes to his office in the morning, the setting changes but the underlying discussion feels familiar. Financial market historians call the tendency for markets to weaken seasonally in September the “September Effect.” He sees a parallel in tryouts: players may be capable of better performances, but stress and expectations can temporarily limit what they show.

In his work as a wealth adviser, Davidge hears anxious investors ask whether they should move into cash and wait for a rebound, whether markets will remain down, whether geopolitical tensions could rise and whether clients have noticed the price of gas. He says uncertainty prompts similar human reactions whether someone is watching an evaluation in the third period or a declining portfolio.

Financial professionals measure market anxiety with the Volatility Index, or VIX, often called the market’s “fear gauge,” Davidge writes. Volatility rises when uncertainty grows. During tryouts, he says, people can also become convinced that the current stress will last indefinitely, although he describes high volatility as a temporary moment rather than a permanent state.

He says people can become fixated on short-term noise, imagine worst-case outcomes and feel compelled to act, even when patience may be the wisest choice. In hockey, a player’s September position on the depth chart does not define them, he writes; their development by March is what counts. Similarly, he says, a financial plan is intended to work over decades and through bull markets, bear markets and the periods between them, rather than to withstand only one difficult month.

Davidge says individuals cannot control central bank interest rates or who moves into town, but they can manage their process, attitude and execution. His advice is to focus on what can be controlled, trust a long-term plan and accept that short-term difficulty can accompany longer-term growth. He closes with a hockey comparison: even a severe portfolio pullback does not smell like equipment left in a vehicle since the last road trip.

Davidge is a Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Investment Manager with IG Wealth Management in Sherwood Park. He can be reached at Elton.Davidge@ig.ca. His column is for general information only and is not personal tax, legal, financial or investment advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. The opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of IG Wealth Management; readers are advised to consult a qualified professional about their circumstances. The column is signed “Elton Davidge, CFP, CIM” and identifies IG Wealth Management, Sherwood Park.