Ellis Phifer, CFA^®, CMT

Ellis Phifer serves as a managing director and senior strategist for the Fixed Income Research department of Raymond James. Ellis has been actively involved in the fixed-income markets for 25 years, split between fixed-income portfolio management and strategy and research.

Ellis and his team use a top-down approach to strategy development, beginning with the macro-economic environment to guide decisions to the sector level and then to the individual security level. He regularly consults with clients on global macro-economic environment issues, including geopolitics, currencies and commodities and how they affect interest rates, the yield curve, and, ultimately, security selection. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Reuters, CNBC, Daily Mail and Yahoo News on his thoughts on the economy, fixed income and currencies. Ellis has developed a large following for “The Morning Notes,” his commentary on global markets with an emphasis on domestic interest rates and the fixed-income markets. He has spoken to a wide variety of audiences at numerous conferences, seminars and client gatherings.

His fixed-income portfolio management career included the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) and the Texas General Land Office. While at ERS, Ellis advanced to become the director of fixed income, overseeing fixed-income asset allocation and directly managing $3 billion of the $6 billion in fixed-income investments. During his career, Ellis has managed treasury, agency, mortgage, corporate and asset-backed securities.

Ellis earned his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and his B.S. in finance from the University of New Orleans and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® and Chartered Market Technician® designations.

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