Richie R. Ma
Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
336 OFOR Data Room, Mumford Hall
1301 W. Greogry Dr., Urbana, IL 61801
Email: ruchuan2@illinois.edu
I’m a Ph.D. candidate at Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and member of the Office for Futures and Options Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I will be at 2026-2027 job market.
My research focuses on the economics of commodity markets, including futures trading, grain merchandising, risk management, and food marketing.
I welcome opportunities for research collaboration. Please feel free to reach out to me if you are interested in discussing potential collaborations.
My PhD research focuses 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 also focus on the interconnections of various risk management tools, including forward contracts and crop insurances, and the interplay between different agents (e.g., farmers and merchandisers) who are involved in the commodity markets.
I’m also interested in big data analytics and efficient computation. I have developed three programming packages for CME market data parsing and analyzing, and financial price discovery of multiple trading venues.
Research Interests
- Commodity Futures Markets
- Risk Management
- Food Marketing
- Electronic Trading and Market Microstructure
- Price Analysis