Wall Street office party? College Halloweekend rager? As this Martin Scorsese film highlighted, the two are scarily similar.

Halloween was, for many of us, an opportunity to engage in outrageous bacchanalian revelry. The finance industry, with its long hours and endless project deadlines, is often perceived as the polar opposite of such fun. That is, at least, before Wolf of Wall Street hit theaters, and highlighted the ostentatious, Work Hard Play Hard(er) mentality.  Interestingly, there are a number of financial concepts related to Halloween, in both provenance and nature. While their inane names are quite comical, they actually reflect an important driving force in the behavior of financial markets: the idea of time and seasonality.

A trough in a graph depicting the stock market doing poorly in October. While the October Effect may bear some truth, there is little empirical evidence to determine why it happens.

Now that October is over, we can see that stock prices did well that month, rising about 1.17%. On a daily basis, though, there was a tremendous amount of volatility in the market, with prices reaching yearly highs and lows. In fact, at one point, stocks plunged so dramatically in one day of trading that all gains were erased for the entire year. I remember reading about this and freaking out. Since it was a Jewish holiday that I observe, I was forced to sit idly by and do nothing in response to the chaos. I asked my family to explain the reason for this sudden shift. Was it in response to another global crisis, such a new viral outbreak, or perhaps another war in Ukraine? I anticipated the worst, but my sister nonchalantly answered: “October Effect.” The October Effect dictates that stock prices tend to decline in October. It has no empirical basis, but is simply a psychological expectation. Nonetheless, it manifests itself in a number of price plunges, albeit short-lived, that are essentially self-fulfilling prophesies. The source for this anticipated market malaise might trace its roots back to historical downfalls: many substantial market crashes took place during this month.

We have an endless pool of data at our disposal wherever we go, thanks to the smartphone. Being able to constantly track how well stocks are doing can be overwhelming and can lead to obsessive tendencies in which you feel compelled to sell your stock any time the price drops-even by a tiny amount. Most of the time, there is no need for concern, as the price will bounce back.

For those who believe that prices fall below their appropriate value throughout the month, it makes sense to utilize the Halloween Strategy. This refers to a technique in which buyers choose to sell stocks on May 1 and abstain from reinvesting until October 31. The main rationale behind this behavior is to increase capital gains; the period from November through April often shows significantly more growth than during the other six months. A pithy expression that sums up this strategy is “Sell in May and go away.” Of course, the notion of remaining content with one’s investments for an entire six months without buying and selling is antithetical to the workings, and ultimately fundamentals, of the stock market. Human nature impels us to react to swings in the market, even though things often return to normal in the long run. Fortunately, most people do not follow this strategy. Otherwise, the possibility of tremendous gains through minute-to-minute transactions would be severely limited.

While there are always highs and lows that reflect the characteristic fluctuations in the stock market, there are certain times that are especially prone to volatility. The Witching Hour is one such example that haunts the market every month. The Witching Hour is the final period of stock trading between 3 and 4 pm. This time is particularly significant because the bond market closes at 3 pm. Depending on how the bonds performed, stocks will behave accordingly. Since this is the last opportunity to buy stocks for the day, the Witching Hour is particularly volatile and thus controlled by professional, institutional, and program traders. There is also the concept of Triple Witching, or what I think should be colloquially called Witching Hour on Steroids. This takes place during the same time frame on the third Friday of every quarter. The frenzy is due to the fact that stock options and index futures are on the cusp of expiring, and investors want to go through with last minute deals before new ones are announced.

Zombie stocks are on the tipping point of bankruptcy. Unless the company makes an ingenious discovery, their unfortunate fate is set.

When choosing which company to invest in, one has to face two alternatives: stay safe and gain stable returns, or take a risk and face potential rewards. The higher the risk of the company, the more likely it will go under. This riskiness is attractive to certain investors, though, because it entails higher interest rates. Zombies are stocks of companies that exhibit extreme riskiness. Although they are on the brink of bankruptcy, they continue with production. A classic example of a zombie is that of a biotech company, which uses most of its funds to develop a single drug. While the company could face a windfall if the drug is successful, it can also go under immediately if the drug fails. Talk about trick or treat for investors!

For those that are thrill seekers by nature and enjoy speculating in the market, the field of zombies bears the potential for extremely lucrative gains: invest in the right time, while it is still under the radar, and you can reap the rewards if it develops a valuable product. I would be too afraid to dabble in zombies because, like many other investors, I am still scarred by outrageously speculative investments that failed in the Great Recession.

One of Russia’s main sources of revenue is oil, which is controlled by the behemoth Gazprom. Late last year, Russia antagonized Ukraine and threatened to cut off ties to Gazprom’s oil right before the winter. This highlighted the important role that energy and time plays in the economy: Ukraine desperately needed oil at that very moment because their winters are frigid.

What do all of these have in common besides amusing names? Time. As you know, time is money. The implications of that succinct statement are far reaching. Not only is it true that time is important because it can be used to do something valuable- a key basis of an idea in economics referred to as an opportunity cost. Rather, knowing when to take advantage of certain opportunities allows for you to make lucrative decisions. One of the fundamentals of corporate finance is that there is a present value to money. When you choose to invest, whether today or tomorrow, has a tremendous impact on the amount of money you will earn. We like to think of our markets as efficient at all times. In reality, they are disproportionately affected by seasonal shifts. For example, in the cold, depressing winter, consumption drops; shoppers’ lethargic mentality extends to their limited motivation to buy. Energy prices, though, rise, as people use coal and electricity to keep warm.  While financial literacy is important to understand the markets, one must also take a holistic approach and apply other ostensibly unrelated factors, in this case the idea of seasonality, in order to gain a sense of the big picture.