Keiran Witthuhn

Background

About Keiran Witthuhn

My current role includes the following responsibilities: Portfolio Management Wealth management and structuring Servicing private clients Member of Offshore & local Investment team Marketing & online strategy Sales & new business Research and performance analysis Production and distribution of company’s monthly newsletter My Honours thesis was researching the implications of cryptocurrencies for monetary policy. The benefits in the reduction of transaction costs will make the global monetary system far more efficient and equitable. My Masters thesis formulated a shadow interest rate that is not constrained to > 0 and therefore can accurately measure the true stance of US monetary policy when short term rates are near the zero lower bound. This shadow rate takes into account Fed asset purchases, financial market intervention and forward guidance. This is used to evaluate the appropriateness of US monetary policy in response to real economic variables before and after the GFC. This shadow rate technique is then extended to the UK, Japan and the Euro Area. The effects of these unconventional policies on asset prices (small cap equity, large cap equity, housing) are modelled in various market sentiment conditions. Unconventional monetary policy methods have led to vast speculation and uncertainty in financial markets and I hope to gain insight in these uncertain times. My further academic research include- federalist political structures - a reconsideration of monetary policy and money growth rules - cointegration and causality between exchange rates, prices, and interest rates - determinants of US Dollar value - evolutionary game theory application to "drip pricing"- monetary policy in a post-pandemic world - decaying economic growth - which choice of benchmark in a South African context provides the greatest opportunity of generating alpha given the concentration concerns of the current crop of benchmark indexes available