Madeleine MacRae Klintebo Oct 11, 2010:

Since this is a, supposedly selling, title and the text appears to have nothing to do with nautical terms, you might want to consider transcreation rather than translation. How many of the intended EN audience (who are presumably interested in economics rather than maritime jargon) would ever had heard of "bow wave"?

Without any more context, I read your heading as prefacing a discussion about when you act on a financial crisis - after the fact (köl) or before (bog).

One possibility is:

Ahead or behind the game. Challenges...