Parallels between the financial market and skiing

Parallels between the financial market and skiing

The Jump Start event marked the start of the "VP Bank Experience" series of events for 2023. The current situation on the financial markets requires significantly more effort to make an investment decision than in previous years. Market losses and a rare simultaneous correction in the equity and bond markets characterised the investment year 2022. This makes many investors rather cautious about the new investment year. However, the current situation also offers opportunities. This is precisely what the Jump Start Event was designed to highlight.

Restrained situation with more stable opportunities

First, host Rainer Maria Salzgeber asked Tobias Wehrli to take the stage. As a former referee in Swiss ice hockey, he also has a connection to sport and compared the past investment year to a bumpy ski slope, on which the majority of the slopes went downhill.

Looking ahead to the coming investment year, Felix Brill explained the opportunities and risks from an investor's point of view. After a review of the last year, there was also good news: "The current situation is restrained, but it also offers more stable opportunities for investors again," Felix told the audience. After further assessments of the development, he gave three more investment tips: "Stay calm and don't lose your nerve. Don't look too often and seek exchanges with a competent advisor."

King of the Vikings

After Felix's assessments, Salzgeber tuned the audience in to the star guest of the evening: ski racer Aksel Lund Svindal. The Norwegian became Olympic champion twice and world champion five times. During his career, he has learned to deal with setbacks, to assess risks and to motivate himself. He told the audience which mindset he needed to always keep his goals in mind. Analysis and diligence were much more important than the intuition to do something.

Not all experiences during his career in competitive sports had been positive, he said, and he was often confronted with the issues of risk, overcoming and setbacks. "In all situations, failure analysis was always a great help to me," he explained. Asked why he went back up to the start after a downhill ski run and told a colleague how to ski down, Svindal said: "That's what makes the Norwegian team. When we work as a team, everyone gets better."

A successful evening

The feedback from customers and internal guests was thoroughly positive. So everyone was certainly able to take something away from Svindal's strategies. After the official part, the guests had the opportunity to take a photo with Aksel Lund Svindal or to talk to other well-known faces from the world of skiing. Among the guests were Marc Girardelli and Marco Pfiffner. The latter finished 27th in Kitzbühel last Friday. As a memento of this impressive evening, the guests also received a signed biography of Aksel Lund Svindal.

"With this event, we wanted to inspire our customers. They had high expectations, which we definitely exceeded. I am proud of the great teamwork," says Tobias Wehrli, looking back on the event.