Arian Neiron
VanEck is bringing generative AI-powered stock selection to the ASX, giving investors access to a portfolio that learns, adapts and searches for international equity opportunities using computational power and investment intelligence beyond human capability.
The VanEck Dynamic International Equity ETF (ASX: GOAT) will be Australia’s first ETF that uses AI to select international stocks.
The strategy will be available on Monday 20 July, when GOAT begins tracking the Akros Enhanced World ex Australia Index. This next-generation index is built using generative reinforcement learning. Unlike conventional strategies that start with a fixed factor library or a human-defined view of what should work, the model starts from a blank slate, discovering, testing and validating investment signals across international markets.
Each month, the AI model scores approximately 1,200 of the world’s largest developed-market companies across more than 10,000 signals spanning company fundamentals, technicals and macroeconomic indicators. It then selects the 150 companies with the highest assessed probability of outperformance.
Signals that lose predictive power are retired. New signals take their place. The result is a dynamic international equity portfolio designed to learn, adapt and recalibrate as market conditions change.
Arian Neiron, CEO and Managing Director, VanEck Asia Pacific, said GOAT marks the beginning of a new era for Australian investors.
“The industrialisation of alpha is underway and it will be as consequential for asset management as indexing was in the 1970s,” said Neiron.
“AI doesn’t get anchored, it doesn’t get emotional and it doesn’t have career risk that stops it from being early. What was once the exclusive preserve of multi-billion-dollar quant shops with floors of PhDs is now accessible to every Australian with a brokerage account.
“That is not an incremental improvement. That is a structural re-ordering of who gets access to intelligence and on what terms,” said Neiron.
Since the index base date in July 2005, the simulated track record for the Akros Enhanced World ex Australia Index has delivered 12.63% per annum, compared with 9.62% per annum for the MSCI World ex Australia Index, a difference of 3.01 percentage points annually. Over the same period, the index outperformed the MSCI World ex Australia Index in 77% of rolling 12-month periods and 95% of rolling three-year periods1.
The simulated index also produced a maximum drawdown of -28.03%, compared with -38.41% for the benchmark. Its up-capture ratio was 105 and its down-capture ratio was 85.
“What is compelling about the simulated record is not just the return premium, it is where that premium was earned,” said Neiron.
“The strategy’s strongest relative performance has come in stressed, weak-cycle conditions. An up-capture of 105 and a down-capture of 85 is a rare combination. That is what genuine dynamism looks like over a full cycle.”
The index was developed by VanEck in partnership with Akros Technologies, a Seoul-based AI and quantitative index specialist whose engine underpins 75 ETFs globally with approximately US$10 billion in index AUM.
