Senior Lecturer, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University, in South Africa, and a Lead Principle Investigator for the NITheCS Quantitative Finance Research Programme. Is alos a Board of Director at the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM).
Title: Top-10 South African Fine Wines: To drink or to invest?
Abstract: Wine is a beverage to drink but some wines are also an experience, something more than just a drink. Because exquisite wines are expensive and can yield remarkable investment appreciation, many people consider wine not only a semi-luxury drink but also a profitable capital investment. This market has received not only attention from the stakeholders (producers and consumers) but also from the financial world, in particular from speculators, arbitrageurs and fund managers specialised in alternative investment. In this study we construct a new South African Fine Wine (SAFW10) index based on top 10 wines that confirm high-quality, liquidity and highly desirable asset. We examine the effects of adding this new wine index to a broader investment portfolio. Our analysis reveals that including South African wine assets can improve portfolio growth rates. This study is the first attempt to develop a wine index in the South African market, adding a valuable option to the financial instruments available to investors in the South African financial markets.
Biography: Mesias Alfeus is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch University, South Africa and he is also a Lead Principle Investigator for the NITheCS Quantitative Finance Research Programme and board of director at the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM). He serves as in the editorial board for the Journal of Futures Markets. He has a PhD in Quantitative Finance from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia. He is a Mathematician by training with a BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Namibia. He holds masters and honours degrees in Financial Mathematics both with Cum Laude from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He holds a long list of academic awards, and he was the winner of the 2018 International Young Investigator Training Program (YITP) prize at the XIX Workshop on Quantitative Finance held at the University of Rome Tre in Italy. He held an academic visiting position at the University of Padova, northern Italy. He previously worked as a Risk Analyst at Namibian Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA), a Research Associate at UTS Finance, a Lecturer of Financial Mathematics at the University of Wollongong Australia, and AIFMRM Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Cape Town. His papers have been published in the most prestigious journals such as Quantitative Finance, Journal of Futures Markets, Financial Innovation, Journal of Commodity Markets, Journal of Economics Dynamics, and Control, International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance, etc. His current research interests focus on Computational and Mathematical Finance, more specifically in numerical methods for pricing of options and model calibration including model empirical analysis.
