About the Authors

Robert I. Webb teaches Financial Trading at the University of Virginia, where he holds a Paul Tudor Jones II Research Professorship. His research focuses on derivative securities and markets, trading, and incentive economics. He is the author of Trading Catalysts: How Events Move Markets and Create Trading Opportunities (FT Press 2007) and Macroeconomic Information and Financial Trading (Blackwell 1994), and co-author of Investment Strategy and State and Local Economic Policy (Quorum 1992).

Webb has traded treasury bonds and other fixed income securities for the Investment Department of the World Bank; traded futures as a “local” on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; designed new financial futures and option contracts for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; served in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget during President Reagan’s first term; and served at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He held a joint appointment at the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST) Business School in Seoul, Korea, and formerly taught at the University of Southern California.

Webb is the Editor of the Journal of Futures Markets, a leading academic journal on derivative securities and markets. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago and has published widely in both academic journals and the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Investors’ Business Daily, the Nikkei Weekly, and MK Economic Newspaper.

Alexander Webb is a writer with a keen interest in finance, emerging markets, politics, business, technology, and international travel. Living in Asia for half a decade, Alex earned a baccalaureate degree in International Business and Global Management from The University of Hong Kong. He studied Mandarin at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Beijing Language and Culture University, and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He also studied in Japan at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. He worked as an intern at a Chicago Options trading firm and is currently working on a new book.