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Ryan Riordan

Director of Research (Institute for Sustainable Finance) and Professor
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Overview

Ryan is a Professor at Smith School of Business and a recent recipient of the Bank of Canada Governor’s Award. He is the Research Director for the Institute for Sustainable Finance and was recognized by the Globe and Mail as a Changemaker for his work on climate finance. Ryan is also the head of the newly established Institute of Financial Innovation and Technology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich Germany. Prior to joining Smith, Ryan was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and an Assistant Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. His work has been published in all of the leading academic finance journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.

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Academic Area

  • Finance

Interest Topics

Highlights

2021 Changemakers Award

Ryan Riordan has been named a 2021 Changemaker by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business. The report selected 50 entrepreneurs, academics and executives who are striving to find a better way of doing things. Ryan was chosen for his research on financing the transition to a low-carbon economy and his leadership in creating Smith’s Master of Financial Innovation and Technology.

Learn more about the award  

Faculty Details

Profile

Full Bio

Ryan is a Professor at Smith School of Business and a recent recipient of the Bank of Canada Governor’s Award. He is also the head of the newly established Institute of Financial Innovation and Technology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich Germany.

He studies the use of technology in financial markets, and more recently topics in climate finance. His research shows that climate considerations play a role in asset prices and in equity market liquidity. He is the Director of Research of the Institute for Sustainable Finance based at Smith. He founded and was the inaugural Director for the Master of Financial Innovation and Technology (MFIT) at Smith. His research also focuses on high-frequency trading systems and the impact of these systems on the quality of financial markets; too much technology, or its misapplication, can result in markets that are unstable and expensive. Not enough technology can mean investors do not meet their investment targets.

Ryan’s work has been published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Banking and Finance, and the Journal of the Association of Information Systems. His work has won awards such as the Michael J. Brennan Award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies, and the Philip Brown Prize for the best paper published using Sirca data. In 2022 and in 2015 Ryan was awarded SSHRC grants. He has received the Smith School of Business New Researcher and Research Excellence Awards. He has also worked extensively within the financial industry, with regulators, policy makers, and central banks. 

Prior to joining Smith, Ryan was an assistant professor at University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He earned his PhD from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and his MBA from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University. Before embarking on an academic career, Ryan worked as a trader and risk manager at HSBC Trinkaus in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Academic Degrees

Ph.D. in Business (summa cum laude)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (2009)

M.B.A.
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University (2005)

Bachelor of Commerce
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University (2004)

Academic Experience

Queen’s University, Smith School of Business
Professor (2021 - Present)
Associate Professor (2016 - 2021)
Distinguished Professor of Finance (2017 - Present)
Assistant Professor (2014-2016)
Smith Faculty Fellow of Finance (2015-2017)

University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Faculty of Business and Information Technology
Assistant Professor (2012-2014)
Finance Area Coordinator (2013-2014)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Faculty of Economics and Business Engineering
Junior (Assistant) Professor (2011-2012)
Post-Doctoral Researcher (2010-2010)

Publications

Journal Articles

"Price Discovery Without Trading: The case of limit orders" (with Jonathan Brogaard and Terrence Hendershott), forthcoming at the Journal of Finance.

"Scarcity Effects of QE: A transaction–level analysis in the Bund market" (with Heiko Hofer, Kathi Schlepper and Andreas Schrimpf), conditionally accepted at the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

"Uncertainty and Liquidity: Evidence from Hurricane Sandy" (with Dominik Rehse, Nico Rottke, and Joachim Zietz), accepted at the Journal of Financial Economics.

"High Frequency Trading and Extreme Price Movements" (with Jonathan Brogaard, Allen Carrion, Thibaut Moyaert, Andriy Shkilko, and Konstantin Sokolov), Journal of Financial Economics 128 (2), (2018), 235–265.

"High Frequency Trading and the 2008-09 Short-Selling Ban" (with Jonathan Brogaard and Terrence Hendershott), Journal of Financial Economics 124 (1), (2017), 22–42.

"Trading Fast and Slow: Colocation and Market Quality" (with Jonathan Brogaard, Björn Hagströmer, and Lars Norden), Review of Financial Studies 28 (2015), 3407–3443.

"The Impact of Computerized Agents on Immediate Emotions, Overall Arousal and Bidding Behavior in Electronic Auctions", (with Marc Adam and Timm Teubner), Journal of the Association of Information Systems 16 (10) (October 2015), 838-879.

"News and International Stock Market Comovement" (with Markus Hoechstoetter, Stefan Meyer, and Andreas Storkenmaier), Journal of Financial Research 37 (4) (Winter 2014), 519 – 542.

"High-Frequency Trading and Price Discovery" (with Terrence Hendershott and Jonathan Brogaard), Review of Financial Studies 27 (August 2014), 2267–2306.

"Public Information Arrival: Price Discovery and Liquidity in Electronic Limit Order Markets" (with Andreas Storkenmaier, Martin Wagener and Sarah Zhang), Journal of Banking and Finance 37 (April 2014), 1148–1159.

"Algorithmic Trading and the Market for Liquidity" (with Terrence Hendershott), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 48 (August 2013), 1001–1024.

"Latency, Liquidity and Price Discovery" (with Andreas Storkenmaier), Journal of Financial Markets 15 (November 2012), 416–437.

Working Papers

"Playing Hide and Seek: Informed Traders Using Multiple Brokers" (with Jonathan Brogaard, Dan Li, and Matthew Lei).

"Are markets rigged against long-term investors?" (with Corey Garriott).

"Machine Learning the Fundamental Value" (with Evan Dudley and Saad Khan).

"A High-Frequency Analysis of Bitcoin Liquidity" (with Brauneis, Alexander, Mestel, Roland and Erik Theissen), Submitted.

"Tweeting the Good News: Returns and Price Informativeness" (with James Naughton and Mohamed al Guindy).

"Carbon Risk" (with Görgen, Maximilian, Jacob, Andrea, Nerlinger, Martin, Rohleder, Martin and Marco Wilkens), to be presented at the European Finance Association Annual Meeting (2018) and American Economics Association (2019).

"Do Retail Traders Suffer from High Frequency Trading?" (with Andreas Park and Katya Malinova), presented at the 2013 WFA Annual Meeting.

Book Chapters

"The Impact of Economic News on Information and Liquidity in Electronic Futures Trading" in: Information Management and Market Engineering: Vol II. Studies on eOrganisation and Market Engineering (2010). KIT Scientific Publishing, 37-54, with Andreas Storkenmaier, Rudi Studer and Christof Weinhardt.

Practitioner Journal

"Discount-Zertifikate an der Börse Stuttgart: Marktqualität und Preissetzung" (2010). Zeitschrift für das allgemeine Kreditwesen, 63(11), 38-42. with Martin Wagener, Frank Scheuble, and Christof Weinhardt.

In the Media

Globe and Mail 2016/06, New York Times (2014/04), Bloomberg (2013/11), Financial Times (2013/11), Wall Street Journal (2013/11), CNBC (2013/11), Globe and Mail (2013/11), Central Banking (2013/11), eFinancial News (2013/11)

Work in Progress

"Dealer Inventories, Repo Markets and Primary Market Issuance" (with Adrian Walton).

"Noisy Prices and Firm Investment Sensitivity: A Machine Learning Approach" (with Evan Dudley and Saad Khan).

"The Ethics of Machine Learned Lending Decisions" (with Matthias Spitzmueller).

"Machine Collusion".

"Financial Infrastructure Security" (with David Cimon and Michael Brolley).

Teaching

Smith School of Business

  • Fall Semester 2018 - (M.B.A.) Financial Technology and Innovation.
  • Fall Semester 2018 - (B. Comm.) Financial Technology and Innovation.
  • Fall Semester 2018 - (Ph. D.) Capital Markets: Theory and Empirics.
  • Fall Semester 2018 - (M.B.A.) Advanced Portfolio Management.
  • Winter Semester 2017 - (M.Fin.) Financial Technology and Innovation.
  • Fall Semester 2016 - (M.B.A.) Investments.
  • Fall Semester 2016 - (Ph. D.) Capital Markets: Theory and Empirics.
  • Fall Semester 2015 - (M.B.A.) Investments.
  • Fall Semester 2015 - (Ph. D.) Capital Markets: Theory and Empirics.
  • Fall Semester 2014 - (B. Comm.) Investments and Portfolio Management.
  • Fall Semester 2014 - (Ph. D.) Capital Markets: Theory and Empirics.

Ph.D Advising

  • Current – Saad Khan.
  • 2017 – Mohamed al Guindy (Carleton University).

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

  • Winter Semester 2014 - (B.Business) Fixed Income Securities, (B.Business) E-Trading and Exchanges.
  • Winter Semester 2014 - Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC) team mentor.
  • Fall Semester 2013 - (B.Business) Fixed Income Securities, (B.Business) Personal Finance.
  • Winter Semester 2013 - (B.Business) Derivative Securities, (B.Business) Fixed Income Securities.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

  • Summer Semester 2012 - (M.Sc.) Empirical Asset Pricing, (B.Sc.) Financial Market Innovation.
  • Winter Semester 2011 / 2012 - (B.Sc.) eFinance: Informationswirtschaft für den Wertpapierhandel, (B.Sc.) Financial Markets.
  • Summer Semester 2011 - (Ph.D.) Empirical Research Methods.
  • Summer Semester 2011 - (M.Sc.) Empirical Asset Pricing, (B.Sc.) Financial Market Innovation.
  • Winter Semester 2010 / 2011 - (B.Sc.) eFinance: Informationswirtschaft für den Wertpapierhandel, (B.Sc.) Financial Markets.
  • Summer Semester 2010 - (M.Sc.) Empirical Asset Pricing, (B.Sc.) Financial Market Innovation.
  • Winter Semester 2009 / 2010 - (B.Sc.) eFinance: Informationswirtschaft für den Wertpapierhandel. Winter Semester 2008 / 2009 - (B.Sc.) eFinance: Informationswirtschaft für den Wertpapierhandel.

Ph.D Advising

  • 2013 – Sarah Zhang (University of Manchester Business School).
  • 2011 – Andreas Storkenamier (McKinsey Management Consulting).
  • 2011 – Martin Wagener (Börse Stuttgart).

Business University of Vienna

  • Winter Semester 2009 - (B.Sc.) eFinance: Informationswirtschaft für den Wertpapierhandel.

Visiting Positions

University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Visiting Researcher, February 2018–May 2018
Visiting Researcher, June 2017–September 2017

Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland
Visiting Researcher, June 2015–August 2015

University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Visiting Scholar, January 2010–June 2010

Presentations

Conferences Proceedings, and Lecture Notes

"Interactive Data: Technology and Cost of Capital" European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) (2012). Proceedings, Paper 153, with Sarah Zhang and Christof Weinhardt.

"Participation, Feedback & Incentives in a Competitive Forecasting Community" International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) (2011). Proceedings, Paper 16, with Florian Teschner, Athanasios Mazarakis, and Christof Weinhardt.

"Technology and Market Quality: The Case of High Frequency Trading" European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) (2011). Proceedings, Paper 16, with Sarah Zhang.

"Mispricing and Exchange Market Systems: The Effect of Infrastructure Upgrades" 43rd Hawaii International Conference (HICSS) (2010). IEEE Computer Society, Proceedings, 259–269, with Dennis Kundisch, Fethi Rabhi, and Christof Weinhardt.

"System Latency in Linked Sport and Futures Markets" Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (2009). 36, 231–245, with Martin Wagener.

"Know the Flow: Sentiment Extraction from Retail Order Flow Data" Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (2009). 23, 31–46, with Matthias Burhardt.

"The Effect of Automated Trading on Market Quality: Evidence from the New York Stock Exchange" Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (2009). 23, 11–30, with Andreas Storkenmaier.

Selected Academic Conference and Seminar Presentations

American Economics Association (2019), FIRN (2019), Conference on the Industrial Organization of Securities Markets (2015, 2009), Finance Down Under 2015, University of Mainz 2015, Bank for International Settlements 2015, EFA 2014, NBER 2013 Market Microstructure, Banff International Research Conference (2013 - 2 papers), Western Finance Association (2016, 2014, 2013), American Finance Association (2016, 2013), Wilfrid Laurier University (2012), Northern Finance Association (2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008), Symposium Oekonomikum Muenster (2011), German Finance Association (2014, 2010, 2009), University of Ottawa (2010), Erasmus Liquidity Conference, Rotterdam (2015, 2012, 2010), South Western Finance Association Conference, Houston (2010), University of Mannheim (2018, 2010), University of Toronto (2009), University of Toulouse (2009), London Business School Transatlantic Doctoral Consortium (2009), Australasian Finance and Banking Conference, Sydney (2008). (Includes scheduled and some co-author presentations).

Practitioner Presentations

Bank of Canada (2018, 2017), Bundesbank (2016), CPPIB (2014), NASDAQ (2012), OSC Dialogue (2012), OSC (2014, 2012), IIROC (2015, 2013, 2012), Deutsche Boerse Capital Markets Education Event - Thinking Outside the Box (2011), Deutsche Boerse, Research Committee (2011), Stuttgart Stock Exchange, Research Event (2009).

Awards

Fellowships

Queen’s Smith School of Business Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Finance ($30,000) (2015 – 2017)

European Central Bank Lamfalussy Fellowship (10,000€) (2011)

Research Awards

Queen’s Smith School of Business Research Excellence Award ($10,000) (2018)

Queen’s Smith School of Business New Researcher Award ($30,000) (2015)

Queen’s School of Business D.I. McLeod Term Research Assistantship ($5,000) (2014)

Teaching Awards

Queen’s Smith School of Business Distinguished Professor of Finance ($30,000) (2017 – Present)

Teaching awards award for a top 10 lecture (eFinance) in the faculty of economics and business engineering (2009, 2010, 2011)

Other Awards

Bank of Canada Governor’s Award ($60,000) (2019–2021)

Review of Financial Studies Michael J. Brennan Best Paper Award ($20,000) (2014)

Philip Brown Award for best paper using Thomson Reuters Data, ($5,000 AUD) (2012)

Northern Finance Association / CFA Toronto Chapter, best paper award in capital markets research ($2,500) (2012)

Federation of European Security Exchanges (FESE) de la Vega Prize (5,000 €) (2009)

Information and Management Engineering (IME) Graduate School Ph.D. best paper prize (4,000 €) (2009)

Grants & Funding

Insight Grant on Automated Lending (2017–2022)
SSHRC | $90,000 

Collaborative Research Grants on Financial Technology (2017–2020)
Monieson Centre | $200,000

Research Project on Computerized Markets (2017 – Present)
European Securities Market Authority 

Research stay at University of Mannheim Project on Crytpocurrency Markets (2016–2017)
Humboldt Foundation

Insight Grant on Faster Financial Markets (2015-2020)
SSHRC | $80,000 

Start-up Grant (2014)
Queen’s School of Business | $60,000

Start-Up High Frequency Trading Project (2011)
Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) | 20,000 €

Shared Research Group on Financial Market Innovation (2010–2013)
Stuttgart Exchange and KIT | 660,000 €

Post-Doctoral Fellowship (for Haas/Berkeley) (2010)
Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists

Travel scholarship (2007, 2008, 2009)
Karlsruhe  IME Graduate School

Service

Professional Activities

  • Co-chair, 5th European Retail Investment Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2019.
  • Editorial Board, Information Systems Review, FinTech Special Issue, 2018.
  • Associate Editor,  Journal of Empirical Finance 2017 – Present.
  • Co-chair, 4rd European Retail Investment Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2017.
  • SSRHC Insight Grant Adjudication Committee 2016/17.
  • Co-chair, 3rd European Retail Investment Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2015.
  • Co-chair, 2nd European Retail Investment Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2013.
  • Co-chair, 12th Symposium of Finance, Banking and Insurance, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2011.
  • Co-chair, European Retail Investment Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, 2011.
  • Chair, FinanceCom, Frankfurt, Germany, 2010.

Referee for: Econometrica, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, MISQ, OR, Journal of Risk, EM, EFA,  DGF,  NFA.