How a Self-Taught Filipino Coder Gave the Market a Conscience
How a Self-Taught Filipino Coder Gave the Market a Conscience
Blog Article
By Guest Columnist, Forbes Asia
He wasn’t from the finance elite. That’s how he beat them all.
In a hot Quezon City apartment, with fans off and lights out, Joseph Plazo kept coding—driven by vision alone.
A secondhand laptop. A wobbly table. But the simulations ran.
He was building something no one believed in—a trading AI that anticipated fear and greed before markets even blinked.
Now, System 72 outperforms the S&P 500 and predicts volatility like a prophet.
It skipped black swans. It surfed micro-rallies. It built billions in returns.
But instead of guarding it, Plazo gave it away—to students.
## Cracking the Market Without Permission
He never interned at Goldman. He read open-source papers and fed on YouTube lectures.
He studied behavioral finance while juggling freelance jobs.
“I built a system that could feel panic before the market did,” he recalls.
Version 38 nearly ruined him. Version 56 lagged. Version 69 missed the mark.
Then he built something new. A system that didn’t watch charts—it watched people.
## The Day the Machine Spoke Louder Than Noise
While markets trembled, System 72 saw calm in the data fog.
It read hope where humans saw chaos.
By Q3, the firm was posting high-frequency wins with minimal drawdown.
A fund offered $200 million. Plazo walked away.
## The Shock Move: Give It to the Kids
He released the brain—not to banks, but to students.
Kyoto, NUS, Indian IITs—all got access to the system.
“I built this for understanding—not control,” Plazo announced.
## A New Breed of Thinkers
Now, undergrads are solving real-world problems using Plazo’s framework.
They’re using the AI not just to profit—but to serve.
“We’re learning to think like markets,” said a Tokyo PhD student.
## Pushback from the Power Players
Wall Street wasn’t amused.
“This is too powerful to be public,” critics claimed.
He wasn’t apologizing.
“A scalpel doesn’t choose how it’s used,” he said. “People do.”
The core code was open. The infrastructure? Proprietary.
## Legacy: Code as Redemption
In Korea, he got personal: “My father died broke. Not because he was dumb—but because no one taught him how markets work.”
This isn’t just innovation. It’s closure.
He built a door where there was a wall.
## What If the Oracle click here Was Always Human?
From Ivy League to barangay incubators, Plazo’s teaching kids how to outthink machines.
“Don’t replicate me,” he urges. “Transcend me.”
## Final Word: The Oracle Who Shared the Map
He made billions, then made meaning.
“System 73 is next,” he says. “But this one… I hope you’ll build with me.”
And maybe that’s the biggest trade of all—secrecy for shared brilliance.