AXA IM Rosenberg Equities takes first steps to integrate artificial intelligence and big data into their investment approach

AXA Investment Managers’ (AXA IM’s) quantitative investment team, Rosenberg Equities, today announce that they are integrating advanced modelling techniques that specifically utilise neural networks into their investment approach. Rosenberg Equities have been at the forefront of quantitative investing and have significant experience in leveraging machine learning for their clients. This development further enhances their analysis of data and complements the existing investment process.

The first example of this integration is the inclusion of a neural network model in the Sustainable Equity strategy, part of the Advanced Factors range. The new model aims to improve the strategy’s ability to identify stocks that are at risk of extreme price events, mitigating tail risks, and seeking to improve risk/return outcomes for clients.

Gideon Smith, Europe CIO of AXA IM Rosenberg Equities, commented: “This is the first step in us using neural network techniques and advanced artificial intelligence in client portfolios, but is a natural progression of the advanced quantitative techniques we’ve adopted over the last thirty years. We believe this is a considered step and consistent with our investment approach of modelling and managing investment risk for clients. It’s an area where we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise and we are excited to leverage these techniques with the aim of improving client results in all areas of the investment process.”

In addition, Rosenberg Equities is looking at new ‘unstructured’ data sets that can complement the traditional financial data investors have historically focused on to provide deeper insights into company fundamentals and sentiment. For example, Rosenberg Equities is developing a ‘natural language processing’ model to analyse company filings and other text sources in order to create new insights into the investor sentiment associated with a company.

Heidi Ridley, CEO of AXA IM Rosenberg Equities, added: “Both of these developments are a great example of how we can use artificial intelligence and unstructured data to complement our existing modelling techniques, supporting our belief that innovative use of data and technology leads to better insights and ultimately better outcomes for our clients.”