According to Reuters it's the day after Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking's
70th birthday party and David Harding, the head of one of the most successful
hedge funds in the world, is bubbling with talk of black holes. Given the financial crisis of the last few
years, some might see that as an unwise topic of conversation for a hedge fund
manager. But for Harding, a physicist, the geekier the better.
The 50-year-old runs Winton Capital, one of a secretive but
influential band of computer-driven hedge funds that bet tens of billions of
dollars on the world's financial markets using algorithms - mathematical
instructions to computers - which consume everything from bond price moves to
rainfall statistics. For Harding, whose
business attracts mainstream pension investors from the world over, all of
human knowledge is relevant. Rivals are circling, and data is becoming an
increasingly strategic weapon.
Winton's collection of funds is now worth more than $29
billion. It has returned 14.8 percent a year in its main fund over the past
decade - one of the best records over that period in the UK - and Harding is
now likely to be Britain's highest-paid person, according to this year's Sunday
Times Rich List. It says his wealth almost doubled last year to 800 million
pounds ($1.27 billion).
Funds like his are known in the industry as trend-followers,
managed futures funds or Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs)….
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