Richie R. Ma

Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
437 OFOR Data Room, Mumford Hall
1301 W. Greogry Dr., Urbana, IL 61801
Email: ruchuan2@illinois.edu

E-mail Google Scholar Curriculum Vitae Homepage@UIUC

I’m a Ph.D. candidate at Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My research focuses on how midstrem market participants in agricultural value chains, such as merchants, elevators, and processors, use futures or options contracts to manage price risk in commodity markets.

My major research interests are commodity futures and options and price analysis, with a main focus on market microstructure and electronic trading using big data techniques. My work concerns how market efficiency evolves, and how market design and trading rules affect market quality, including market liquidity, price discovery, and trader’s welfare. My research also provides empirical evidence to exchanges and regulators, such as Chicago Exchange Mercantile (CME) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for helping strengthen market transparency and integrity. In practice, my work bridges the gap between risk management strategies (“what to trade”) and real trade executions (“how to trade”).

I’m also interested in big data analytics and machine learning. I have developed three programming packages for CME market data parsing and analyzing, and financial price discovery of multiple trading venues.

I’m open to collaboration in the areas of generally commodity futures and options, including conventional topics, like storage, hedging, and risk management, as well as in market microstructure and electronic trading.

I will be at 2026-2027 job market.

Research Interests

  • Commodity Futures Markets
  • Electronic Trading and Market Microstructure
  • Energy Economics and Finance
  • Big Data and Financial Engineering
  • Price Analysis

Timeline for Conferences - 2026

2026 AAEA Annual Meeting - Kansas City, MO, July 26-28, 2026.

When options lead and futures inform: Price discovery in agricultural derivatives markets