[2] His approach favours quantitative investment strategies, using scientific research as the basis of trading decisions.

[3] Harding has also endowed the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory at Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, and established the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Politically, Harding has served as the joint-treasurer of Britain Stronger in Europe and chairman of the BSIE finance committee.

David Winton Harding was born on 24 August 1961, the youngest of four children, and raised in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

[5][6] At Cambridge, Harding studied natural sciences and in 1982 he graduated from his BA with first class honours.

[7][9][10] In 1985, Harding became a futures trader at Sabre Fund Management, one of the first commodity trading advisors (CTAs) in the United Kingdom.

According to Barron's, Harding had left Man after becoming frustrated by lack of focus on research and the bureaucracy of working in a large firm.

[14][8] According to Hedge Fund Review magazine, his aim was to demonstrate that a business can be successful based on empirical scientific research, rather than relying on marketing.

[26][14] Harding has made major donations to educational and research institutions through his Winton Charitable Foundation.

[29] Harding's foundation, the David and Claudia Harding Foundation, has pledged £20 million to the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory to establish The Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, an advanced research programme to apply theoretical physics to issues of the sustainability of natural resources.

He donated almost £1 million to the party whilst David Cameron was in power and during the 2019 general election donated £200,000 to the party, stating in an interview that he would consider leaving the country if a Labour government targeted hedge fund companies and increased taxes.