Professor Webb specializes in the study of speculative markets, with particular emphasis on how differences in market structure—or the way financial markets are organized—affect the behavior of financial market prices. He is also interested in how traders make decisions and how “noise” (i.e., noninformational factors) affects financial markets. His current research interests include the impact of high-frequency trading on financial market prices, latency, and behavioral finance. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2023-2024 academic year to conduct research at the University of Wollongong in Australia on the impact of flight capital. 

He is the author of the books 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 Shock Markets: Trading Lessons for Volatile Times (FT Press 2013). He has written articles for academic journals such as Journal of EconometricsJournal of Business & Economic Statistics; and Journal of Futures Markets, among others. He has also written articles for the financial press, including The Wall Street JournalNikkei WeeklyInvestor’s Business DailyMK Economic Newspaper; and Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Professor Webb served as the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Futures Markets, a leading academic journal focusing on derivative securities and markets, for 24 years.

His experience includes trading fixed income securities for the World Bank (consultant); trading financial futures and options for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (member); designing new financial futures and option contracts for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (senior financial economist); serving as Senior Financial Economist at both the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission; and consulting on risk management issues for the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He served as a Visiting Professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia from 1994 to 2013. He held a joint appointment at the KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Business School in Seoul, Korea, from 2009 to 2012.