Asset Plus Launches Two AI-Based S&P 500 Funds

"The S&P 500 is a collective of great companies that have led the capital markets. Asset Plus Asset Management will strive to achieve even greater value within this great value by launching two types of public funds investing in growth and dividends based on artificial intelligence (AI) accumulated since 2017."

Head of Domestic Operations Division, Asset Plus Asset Management, the strong player. Photo by Hyunseok Yoo

On the 4th, Kang Jarin, Head of Domestic Operations at Asset Plus Asset Management, said this at a commemorative meeting for the launch of the AI-based S&P 500 equity fund held at the Korea Financial Investment Association in Yeouido.

This fund uses S&P 500 companies as its investment universe. Within that, it compresses and invests in up to 30 stocks each with better growth value and dividend value. The fund names are Asset Plus-AlphaBridge AI-based S&P 500 Growth Focus 30 and Dividend Focus 30. The AI management technology support for this fund is provided by AlphaBridge, a subsidiary of Asset Plus, which has been providing technology support for the Alpha Robo fund for over seven years.

Kang Jarin explained, "Among the great companies included in the S&P 500, we carefully select companies with higher growth value or dividend value using AI," adding, "As an active management firm, we compress investments to within 30 stocks, and the fund management strategy’s feature is selecting the strongest among the strong using AI."

He emphasized that, unlike existing funds, the focus is on value indicators such as financial statements rather than price. He said, "The results of AI funds vary depending on what data they were trained on, and we focus on value indicators such as financial statements rather than price indicators to find better value," adding, "A major feature is that we use a differentiated database that reconstructs individual companies’ financial data from a shareholder perspective."

Juseong Park, CEO of Alphabridge. Photo by Hyunseok Yoo

The fund is managed using an AI portfolio engine called 'Voyager.' This engine goes through three main processes: data processing, AI modeling, and portfolio creation and management. Park Juseong, CEO of AlphaBridge, said, "Data processing is the entire process of collecting, processing, and reconstructing data necessary for AI training," adding, "Because differences in data suitability and quality greatly affect AI algorithm performance, we put considerable effort into this." He further added, "The data processing reflecting Asset Plus’s shareholder perspective interpretation is the core competency of this engine."

AI modeling is the stage of building through AI training, where numerous calculations and learning processes are conducted to achieve each fund’s investment strategy and goals. The final stage, portfolio creation and management, involves determining optimal portfolio conditions and continuously monitoring the results. It optimizes the number of stocks and weights according to attributes and manages through performance analysis, risk analysis, and attribute analysis.

In particular, to improve AI management performance in the future, the focus will be on data enhancement. CEO Park explained, "We analyze data from quantitative, qualitative, micro, and macro perspectives, classify and expand it into various types such as text, numbers, and images," adding, "Going forward, unstructured data such as news, IR materials, and CEO interviews will also be included in AI training."