CFTC Economists

Nicole Aulerich, Research Economist, joined the Commission in 2008 as a Consultant and became a Research Economist in 2009. She is finishing her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she specializes in agricultural futures and options markets. Ms. Aulerich’s research focuses on price reaction to events, convergence of futures and cash prices, and the effect of futures traders’ positions on market direction and volatility.

Naomi Boyd, Financial Analyst, joined the Commission in 2005 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Finance at West Virginia University. She received her Ph.D. in Finance from George Washington University, Washington D.C. in 2009. Dr. Boyd previously served as a visiting professor and lecturer at the George Washington University and a lecturer at Texas Tech University. Her research involves the behavior of traders, the characterization of competitive market making, the integration of markets and market participants, price discovery, and other issues relating to market microstructure of options and futures markets.

Celso Brunetti, Visiting Economist, joined the Commission in December 2007 as Visiting Economist/Consultant. He earned his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Economics from the University of London and is currently Assistant Professor of Finance at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Brunetti previously held academic positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Economics, and at the University of Edinburgh Business School. His research interests focus on high frequency data, financial market volatility and correlation, financial market liquidity, asset pricing, hedge funds behavior.

Bahattin Buyuksahin, Economist, joined the Commission in August 2005. He received his Ph.D. in Economics at American University, Washington D.C. in 2002. He was previously a Consultant with the World Bank, where he worked on social safety net project for the MENA region. Prior to the World Bank, he was on the faculty of the College of Economics and Business Administration at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey, where he taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in mathematical economics, microeconomics and international finance. Dr. Buyuksahin provides quantitative assistance to Office of the Chief Economist and Office of the Chairman. His research at the Commission involves issues related to microstructure of futures market, price discovery, the role of speculators in futures market and commodity index trading.

Raymond (Pat) Fishe, Consultant, (Ph.D., University of Florida, 1979) is the Patricia A. and George W. Wellde, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Finance at the University of Richmond. He was previously Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Miami and Senior Academic Fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He has taught at the Florida State University and the University of Florida. He has taught graduate and undergraduate students throughout his career, and has extensive experience with executive education courses and seminars, including seminars for major corporations, non-profits and the National Association of Securities Dealers. Dr. Fishe has published articles in the American Economic Review, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Futures Markets, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Consumer Research and other journals in finance and economics. His current research interests are in characterizing trading behavior in futures markets, testing ambiguity models with initial public offerings, allocation decisions for initial public offerings, option market microstructure, and mutual funds. He has consulted with corporations and government agencies on various issues, including insider trading and corporate governance.

Jeffrey Harris, Chief Economist, joined the Commission in 2006 as a Visiting Economist/Consultant and was named Chief Economist in 2007. He received his Ph. D. in finance from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in market microstructure. Dr. Harris is serving at the CFTC while on leave from his faculty appointment as Professor of Finance in the Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware. He previously held faculty positions at the University of Notre Dame and The Ohio State University. Outside of academics, Dr. Harris has also served as Visiting Academic Fellow at the Nasdaq stock market and as Visiting Academic Scholar at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His research has focused on the microstructure of securities and futures markets as related to trading rules, market regulation, and securities issuance. Dr. Harris has published a number of journal articles appearing in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Financial Management and the Journal of Investment Management.

Andrei Kirilenko, Senior Financial Economist, has been with the Commission since 2008. He received his Ph. D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in financial markets. Prior to joining the CFTC, Dr. Kirilenko spent twelve years at the International Monetary Fund working on global capital markets issues. His research has focused on the informational properties and microstructure of securities markets. He has published a number of journal articles appearing in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, and IMF Staff Papers.

James T. Moser, Deputy Chief Economist, has a research agenda that focuses on three questions: What is the contribution of derivatives to the real economy? What arrangements do private markets make to resolve problems arising from use of derivatives? And, what is the proper role of government in regulating derivatives activity? His previous industry positions were at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as a Research Officer and at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where he was a Senior Director. He has held academic positions at Louisiana Tech, Michigan State University and the University of Kentucky. He received his BS in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1978 and Ph.D. in Finance from Ohio State in 1986.

Arkadiusz (Arek) Nowak, Financial Economist, joined the Commission in 2008 as a Financial Economist. He received his Ph. D. in financial economics from The University of Delaware, where he was involved in teaching in both Economics and Finance Departments. His research, conducted with his Ph.D. adviser, Jay F. Coughenour, has focused primarily on the microstructure of securities as related to fragmentation of order flow across trading venues, and the issues of liquidity and liquidity risk.

Lindolfo Pedraza, Economist, joined the Commission in 2009. He was previously a consultant with the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, supporting the economic consistency of large industrial survey systems. Past projects include writing wholesale electricity market clearing algorithms, formalizing statistical systems used to monitor electricity fuel and electricity supply chains, developing the Energy Information Administration’s prototype petroleum and petroleum product supply chain graphical analysis system, and analyzing the effects of alternative transportation technologies on greenhouse gas inventories.

Michael Penick, Senior Economist, has worked for the CFTC since 1991 and for the Office of the Chief Economist since 2002. He has worked with the Division of Enforcement on numerous market manipulation investigations, including Amaranth and Enron.  Research interests include the economic history of futures trading and regulation. He created and maintains the CFTC History pages on the CFTC Web site and maintains the CFTC glossary.  Prior to 2002, he reviewed new futures contracts and rule amendments for the CFTC’s Product Review Group.   Previously, he was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade where he traded options on Treasury bond futures and stock index futures. Mr. Penick has had an article accepted for publication in the Companion to Financial Derivatives, forthcoming in 2009.

Todd Prono, Financial Economist, joined the Commission in 2009. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston College and his B.A. in economics and English from Cornell University. Prior to joining the CFTC, Dr. Prono spent 3 years in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as a financial economist, where he reviewed the risk management models of large financial institutions. His research focuses on the intersection of asset pricing and financial econometrics. Topics considered include the implications on CAPM testing of a market return measured with error (one-such implication is time-variation in beta) and the role certain parameterizations of conditional heteroskedasticity (CH) can play in the identification of linear triangular and simultaneous systems. An additional focus is the estimation of CH models employing information from the third and fourth moments.

David Reiffen, Senior Economist, joined the Commission in 2003. He received his Ph. D. in economics from UCLA, where he specialized in industrial organization. Dr. Reiffen previously served as an economist at the US Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission. He has served as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University. His research at the CFTC has focused on the industrial organization of financial exchanges, especially the causes and effects of demutualization. Dr. Reiffen’s published research has appeared in journals such as the American Economic Review, the Rand Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Law and Economics.

Nela Richardson, Research Economist, joined the Commission in 2009. She received her Ph. D. in economics from the University of Maryland, where she specialized in international finance. Dr. Richardson previously served as a senior economist at Freddie Mac and as a researcher for Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. She was also a graduate intern in the International Finance Division at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Her research interests include international financial regulation, market microstructure, and emerging market finance.

Michael A. Robe, Visiting Senior Economist, is an Associate Professor of Finance at American University's Kogod School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Financial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995, and later taught international finance at the University of Miami and at McGill University. Professor Robe has visited the CFTC as a Senior Economist since 2006. His work on insider trading, financial regulation, security design, volatility, cross-border financial flows and risk sharing has appeared in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, International Economic Review, and other academic journals. His ongoing research at the CFTC includes papers on exchange demutualization and investor protection, the organization and evolution of futures markets, and derivative-market microstructure.

Mehrdad Samadi, Economist, joined the Commission in September 2009. He received his Bachelors in Finance from Rutgers University in May 2009. Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Samadi spent two years at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank's Compliance Group. His undergraduate research focused on the market effects of short selling and relation to options trading.

Kirsten Soneson, Financial Economist, joined the Commission in June 2008 after graduating from Nebraska Wesleyan University with her degree in business, economics, and political science. Her research interests comprise a variety of topics, including analysis of position limit impact on the volatility of energy futures markets, exchange traded funds’ (ETFs) trading effect on futures markets and the funds’ role in providing liquidity, the impact of large trader downfalls on market microstructure, OPEC production and price announcements impact on the price behavior in the crude oil futures market, and research pertaining to single stock futures.

Laura Tuttle, Visiting Economist, joined the Commission in August, 2009 as a Visiting Economist. She earned her Ph.D. in Finance from The Ohio State University and is currently Assistant Professor of Finance at the American University of Sharjah. Dr. Tuttle’s research interests include using high-frequency data to study financial market liquidity, price discovery and informational linkages in fragmented markets.