Corlise Le Roux is one of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) young researchers in the Department of Finance and Investment Management. The lecturer, who specialises in Investment Management at UJ, recently won an award for Best Paper at the International Conference on Economics, Finance and Management Outlooks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Le Roux’s research on “Predictive Relationships between Metal Commodities and the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index” earned her the accolade among 70 international presenters at the conference.
She joined UJ in March 2011 and has since been on top of her game. Le Roux is currently in the process of completing her PhD in Finance and is planning to write CFA level 3, FRM level 2 and CAIA level 2 over the next year. In the past, she worked at Investec Private Bank, after which she joined the UJ to pursue her Master’s studies. Passionate about academia, she decided to stick to the UJ academic environment as it was the right space for her personal and professional growth.
She specifically conducts research in the Investment Management field, with more focus on commodities. “It is important for us to do this research for investment purposes and to better understand the relationship commodities have in the South African market.” says Le Roux.
Her recent research:
Predictive Relationships between Metal Commodities and the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index.
Abstract of the research:
The paper will investigate the possible predictive relationships between four commodities, namely copper, palladium, platinum and silver against the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index. The impact of the relationship between the commodities and the FTSE/JSE Top 40 on the South African Rand (ZAR) will also be investigated. Single and multiple regressions will be used to explore any indication of a statistical significant relationship. Correlation will also be explored in the investigation process. Once the initial investigation is completed to ensure statistical significance, a VAR study will be undertaken to validate the linear interdependencies among multiple time series, followed by the Johansen Cointegration test. The results indicate that there is a cointegrating relationship between the datasets.
The above study is the starting point of a larger research project with further studies investigating the initial relationships of other commodity groups (agricultural, chemical and energy commodities) as well as further analysis into each of these commodity groups for an end purpose of identifying cross hedging relationships in the South African market.
