Insights / Blogs

Insights / Blogs

On The Lookout

James Swanson, Chief Investment Strategist, helps readers make sense of the markets by sharing what he learns along the way.

About James Swanson

James T. Swanson is the chief investment strategist of MFS Investment Management®. In that role, he meets frequently with MFS portfolio managers and analysts to cull their views about the economy, financial markets, and corporate health. Swanson also meets with outside economists, government officials, Wall Street strategists and analysts to further refine his thinking on the global economy, financial markets, and valuations within stocks and bond markets.

In 1985, Swanson joined MFS as a fixed-income credit analyst. He then served as associate portfolio manager, portfolio manager, and research analyst before being named to the position of Fixed Income Strategist in 2001, and Chief Investment Strategist in 2004. He also serves on the MFS® Fixed Income Strategy Group.

Before joining MFS, Swanson worked for 11 years as a senior investment officer at New England Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Swanson delivers hundreds of presentations and speeches per year; and travels to visit clients in some 11 countries and at least four continents per year. He is a frequent guest commentator on the markets for CNBC and Bloomberg television and has been quoted extensively in such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, USA Today, The Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report.

Swanson is a graduate of Colgate University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an MBA, along with classmates George W. Bush and Jim Koch, the founder of Samuel Adams beer, from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. Swanson holds a chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation and is on the board of directors of the Fixed Income Society of Boston. He is also on the board of the New England Philharmonic, but admits to being an avid country music fan.