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
I’m a Ph.D. candidate at Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
My major research interests are commodity futures and options, with a main focus on market microstructure and electronic trading. My work concerns how market efficiency evolves, and how market design and trading rules affect market quality. 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”).
My research also focuses on energy economics, such as the response of energy futures to geopolitical shocks, and the effect of U.S. biofuel policy on agricultural commodity markets.
I also work on electricity market designs, such as bidding strategies in day-ahead and real-time markets and how these affect the market efficiency and price volatility.
I’m also interested in financial data engineering and big data analytics. I have developed three programming packages for CME market data parsing and analyzing, and financial price discovery of multiple trading venues.
I will be at 2026-2027 job market.
Research Interests
- Commodity Futures Markets
- Electronic Trading and Market Microstructure
- Energy Economics and Finance
- Electricity Market Design
- Big Financial Data 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