Founder & CEO, Winton
Search every verified David Harding interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Harding, founder and CEO of Winton Group, has spoken extensively about the evolution of quantitative investing and the challenges facing the hedge fund industry. He has described the current environment for systematic strategies as "tough times," citing low interest rates and increased crowding of strategies as factors that have compressed returns. Harding noted that Winton has responded by diversifying beyond its traditional trend-following approach, shifting a greater proportion of its trading into equity portfolios and expanding the number of stocks it tracks from around 1,500 to 7,000. He has also highlighted the firm's adoption of cloud computing and the use of high-frequency data for measuring correlation changes, even as Winton maintains a relatively long-term trading horizon. Harding has also discussed his views on energy and philanthropy. He has expressed optimism about nuclear fusion, describing it as approaching a "Wright brothers moment" and noting that private investment and advances in high-temperature superconductors could enable smaller, cheaper reactors. He has been critical of what he calls the "bureaucracy of ESG," stating that he is not comfortable with external bodies imposing a definition of moral investing Poisson. Harding has said that his philanthropic giving has focused on educational causes in mathematics and science, particularly the public understanding of statistics and risk, as well as fundamental scientific research into sustainable energy.
“Since 2008 as though an enormous amount of debt has been issued by governments which has been bought by central banks and I can't really understand why that isn't printing money and therefore why you wouldn't expect inflation which we now have.”
“The investment system has protected me from the consequences of my own opinions and generally it's had its ups and downs.”
“When you put time series in these newfangled computers and I said what happens if I bet on trends, the computer would spit out the answer — every time you will make money.”
“I'm investing in prototype solar cells — we invest in perovskite — and I'm excited by fusion; longer term I do a lot of venture capital investing.”
“I'm not a fan of the bureaucracy of ESG — a lot of codes and forms and stuff being filled in for the sake of it; I'm not really at ease with some body of people trying to choose what moral investing is and then impose moral investing.”
“One of the only ESG concessions we've made in our hedge fund system was not investing in cluster-bombing companies and landmine companies — somewhat ironically now with the invasion of Ukraine a lot of people are seeing that defense isn't necessarily evil any more than oil can be or pharmaceuticals or banking.”
“Most people don't understand statistics; H.G. Wells said in the future everyone will have to understand statistics — in order to be a citizen — and that's why the idea of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy is to communicate risk so people can take better decisions.”
“My children don't need all the money that I'm going to leave — Bill Gates has said he was going to leave modest amounts with his children and Warren Buffett similarly; among the nouveau riche it's the norm to expect to give away a lot of the money before you die.”
“Successful investing is a matter of patience — it needs to be as much as possible purge of emotion — and you should not take yourself and your opinions particularly seriously unless you're very, very knowledgeable on some subject.”
“I contend that the time to invest in fusion is now — after 70 years the horizon is coming into view; we are approaching the Wright brothers moment.”
“If you could get fusion to work it doesn't produce any long-lived radioactivity at all.”
“There's one problem with that power [fission] — it produces very long-lived, very dirty and very nasty nuclear waste which lasts for like 100,000 years.”
“Some think the fusion industry could be developed in the same way as the airplane industry or the computer industry or the car industry — through free competitive markets, private enterprise, investment, competition and creativity.”
“When ITER was set up in Grenoble it was destined to go live in 2030 — it's an inspiring collaborative project and aims to achieve the fastest possible development of fusion power.”
“The invention of high temperature superconductors means much more powerful magnets and much cheaper cooling: double the magnet strength and you can make reactors vastly smaller — instead of a football-field-sized device you can build it in a shed in Abingdon.”
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