South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. has listed an exchange traded fund (ETF) that is managed by an artificial intelligence (AI) system, not human portfolio managers, in Canada.

The company said on Thursday that Horizons Active A.I. Global Equity ETF (MIND ETF) joined the Toronto stock exchange on Nov. 1 (local time). The new ETF product relies entirely on an AI system that will analyze data to figure out investment patterns and make all investment decisions. It will invest in major global equity indices by primarily using North America-listed ETFs, according to the company.

ETF is a type of fund that tracks a stock index like Kospi, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. It is traded like a common stock on a stock exchange, and ETFs have been mainly managed by human portfolio managers so far.

Mirae Asset claimed its MIND ETF is the world’s first AI-run ETF that invests in global markets, different from the AI-managed peer that was listed in the New York Stock Exchange last month to invest in the U.S. market only. Using deep learning technology, the MIND ETF AI system gathers and analyzes data from 50 investment metrics to create a portfolio. It will adjust investment ratio by region or country every month after analyzing expected yields, volatility and other various metrics, the company explained.

Mirae Asset Global Investments has been active in developing “smart” investment methods applying deep learning technology since it established AI Finance Research Center for the first time in Korea in October last year. In January this year, it launched a fund named Mirae Asset AI Smart Beta Fund.

Mirae Asset currently manages 234 ETFs under three brands - Horizons, Tiger and BetaDhares - in six countries including the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Columbia, Korea, and Australia. As of the end of September, the fund assets under management reached 19.1 trillion won ($17.2 billion), making the firm the 21st largest asset management firm across the world by asset.

By Hong Jang-won and Lee Ha-yeon

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