Altegris Futures Evolution Strategy Fund

Winton was founded by David Winton Harding and started trading in October 1997. Mr. Harding is one of the pioneers of trend-following systematic trading in Europe. Whilst at Winton, Mr. Harding has been registered with the CFTC as an Associated Person (“AP”) and listed as a Principal of Winton and has been an Associate Member of NFA since January 1998.

Winton’s investment process is probably best understood by starting with the founding principle and philosophy laid down by David Harding. For the past 25+ years David has believed that markets do not adhere to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, that they are not perfect and do not move according to a random walk.  Therefore the intelligent application of financial mathematics coupled with robust statistical research into financial markets can be used to create a scientific investing system that can perform in all market conditions over long time horizons.

Winton’s founding principle was, and remains, the belief that robust statistical research provides the richest and most reliable source of information on market behavior. Staffed by scientists and computer software engineers it uses financial mathematics as the basis for investment decisions.  Researchers study huge volumes of data, about the past movements of financial prices taken from markets around the world. Making statistical inferences from history has enabled Winton to develop a scientific investing system which can be applied in a disciplined fashion both now and over the coming years.  Research is the largest area of investment in the company which employs approximately 240 people.

Mr. Harding graduated from Cambridge University with a First Class Honours degree in Natural Sciences specializing in Theoretical Physics. In September 1982, he joined stockbroker Wood MacKenzie as a graduate trainee and became involved with futures trading just as the London International Financial Futures Exchange opened.

A year later, in September 1983, he left Wood MacKenzie and moved to Johnson Matthey & Wallace, a commodity futures broker, where he was involved in gilt trading and sales. When that company closed due to the failure of its parent company, in November 1984 Mr. Harding left it and joined Sabre Fund Management, one of the UK’s first CTAs where he was an Associate Member of NFA from April 1986 until July 1988 and registered as an AP from May 1986 until July 1988. In his new position, for the first time, Mr. Harding was able to apply his scientific training to develop techniques for trading a wide variety of futures markets. In November 1986, Mr. Harding left Sabre Fund Management to join Brockham Securities, the Adam Family sugar trading company, where he assisted in development and marketing of futures fund management services.

In February 1987 he left to form Adam, Harding and Lueck Ltd (“AHL”). AHL brought together the programming and system development abilities of Michael Adam and Martin Lueck with Mr. Harding’s research and marketing skills. AHL rapidly became a successful CTA and in 1989, The Man Group PLC (formerly ED&F Man PLC) acquired a 51% stake and began distributing AHL’s products globally. Over the next five years, the three principals built a firm with assets under management of $300 million and a staff of nearly 100, including research teams developing mathematical and statistical trading strategies. AHL is still the flagship fund of The Man Group which is a FTSE 100 Company. Mr. Harding was an Associate Member of NFA and an AP of Man AHL USA Corp from July 1988 until January 1996. He was also listed as a Principal of Man AHL USA Corp from July 1988 until February 1995.

In 1993, Mr. Harding was invited to present a paper to a special symposium of London’s prestigious Royal Society, on the subject “Making Money from Mathematical Models.” This paper was subsequently incorporated into two books. In 1994, ED&F Man Group floated on the London Stock Exchange and acquired the remaining 49% of AHL. Mr. Harding then formed and ran Man Quantitative Research, an in-house advanced statistical research team until August 1996.

In August 1996 Mr. Harding left ED&F Man Group and in February 1997 he founded Winton where he continues to lead the company’s research efforts.

Mr. Harding is also a trustee of the Winton Charitable Foundation, which in 2007 endowed the Winton Professorship of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University. Similarly, in 2008, the David Harding Foundation endowed the David Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Germany.  In 2010 The David Harding Foundation gave £20 million to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge to fund the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability.

Mr. Gundlach is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of DoubleLine. He was formerly associated with TCW where he was Chief Investment Officer and head of fixed income activities. He is recognized as a leading expert in mortgage-backed securities and investment asset allocation. His investment strategies have been featured in leading publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, Pensions & Investments and Institutional Investor. In 2010, Mr. Gundlach was named to the SmartMoney Power 30, one of the seventeen most influential people by The Mutual Fund Wire and “Fund Leader of the Year” by Fund Action. In 2011, he was featured as “The King of Bonds” in Barron’s, named one of “5 Mutual Fund All-Stars” by Fortune Magazine and named “Bond Manager of the Year” by Foundations and Endowments Money Management. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College summa cum laude holding a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy. He attended Yale University as a PhD candidate in Mathematics.