By Guest Columnist, Forbes Tech Desk
Imagine having a cheat code for financial markets. Joseph Plazo didn’t just imagine it—he built it. Then gave it away.
Hong Kong, 2025 — In a sunlit University of Hong Kong classroom, Joseph Plazo walked the stage like a code-wielding prophet.
PhDs and programmers sat frozen, eyes locked on the projector as a piece of market history appeared as code.
“What you’re seeing,” he said, “is the DNA of something that never lost.”
Then he added: “And you’re going to improve it.”
## The Code That Outplayed Wall Street
Plazo’s AI took 12 years, 72 failed iterations, and millions in research funding to perfect.
System 72 blends behavioral forecasting, sentiment parsing, and high-frequency trade logic.
It processes voice inflection, tweet patterns, derivatives, newsfeeds—then acts.
“We built a machine to sense fear before it echoes in the charts,” he adds.
The results? Astonishing.
It dodged crashes. Nailed rallies. Some weeks, it never lost.
System 72 wasn’t just smart. It was surgical.
## Then Came the Twist
Sitting in his boardroom, he made a decision no financier expected.
“I’m releasing the core engine to the public,” he told his team.
Silence. Then disbelief. Then resistance.
He wasn’t licensing the code. He wasn’t monetizing it. He was giving away the brain of the most profitable AI in finance.
“It’s not a trade secret. It’s a foundation,” he said.
## The Educational Revolution That Followed
In days, academic labs began rewriting what AI could do with the System 72 core.
Singaporean students created trading bots. In Taipei, it powered disaster simulations. In Seoul, it optimized electric grid forecasting.
“It’s the scaffolding for a thousand future systems,” said a Kyoto researcher.
Global regulators? Watching—and learning.
## Critics, Controversy, and the Ethics of Genius
Of course, not everyone cheered.
“This could destabilize global markets,” one investment firm claimed.
The noise didn’t shake his belief.
“Tools don’t decide morality,” he said. “People do.”
Only the logic is open. The machinery remains secure.
“The spark is free. The fire’s up to you.”
## Real Stories from the Ground
In Manila, a single mom turned $400 into $14,000 using a simplified version.
In Vietnam, rural scholars built a financial literacy app to hedge vendor losses.
A Mumbai coder called it “the key that opened my family's future.”
## The Philosophy That Powers the Gift
His reason? “Because monopolizing insight is the slowest way to grow.”
The danger isn’t in sharing. It’s in silence.
“The real risk is keeping power in too few hands,” he told me.
## Conclusion: The Joystick Is Yours Now
As students huddle over keyboards, simulating real-time trades, Plazo smiles at the scene.
“Trading was just the beginning,” he says. “This is about agency.”
While others hoarded secrets, he gave away power.
Thanks to Plazo, the future might be get more info written in code… by someone the market never saw coming.