How Joseph Plazo’s AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Wealth
By Guest Analyst, Forbes Asia
He built the smartest trading system alive—and gave it away.
Seoul, South Korea — At Seoul National University, a full house of professors, students, and analysts awaited Joseph Plazo’s keynote.
Bloomberg reporters scribbled beside AI engineers. Professors sat next to grad students. Everyone leaned in.
He started with a whisper: “Hedge funds would pay millions to bury this.”
And just like that, a billionaire began open-sourcing Wall Street’s crown jewel: a fully autonomous AI trading system with a 99% win rate in equities, and 95% in copyright.
## The Unlikely Hero of High Finance
He didn’t come from the boardrooms of Manhattan or the lecture halls of Yale.
His roots? Quezon City, Philippines. His resources? A battered laptop and boundless grit.
“You can’t win a game if no one taught you the rules,” Plazo explained in Singapore.
And the result? An algorithm that felt panic before it showed on the charts.
And when the system worked, he gave it away.
## Stealing Fire—and Lighting the World
System 72 wasn’t born overnight. It was sculpted through sleepless decades.
It didn’t crunch numbers. It decoded behavior.
From news to noise to nuance—System 72 absorbed it all.
It became a radar for volatility and opportunity hidden beneath chaos.
One fund manager called it “a weather radar for investor fear.”
And rather than cash out, he gifted its code—unconditionally.
“I built it. You evolve it,” he told the world’s leading academic institutions.
## Rewriting the Grammar of Capital
Six months later, classrooms became innovation labs.
In Vietnam, students used the model to optimize farm lending systems.
In Indonesia, labs tuned the algorithm to optimize grid reliability.
In Malaysia, undergrads helped local shops hedge currency risk.
He wasn’t sharing tech. He was rewriting access.
“We’ve turned finance into a private language,” he said. “I’m handing out translations.”
## Wall Street’s Whisper Campaign
Predictably, not everyone cheered.
“This is irresponsible,” a Wall Street insider grumbled. “Too much power, too freely given.”
Plazo remained unmoved.
“Leverage click here shouldn’t be hoarded—it should be distributed,” he countered.
“I’m not giving money,” he said. “I’m giving understanding.”
## The World Tour of Revolution
Now, he’s traveling from slums to skyscrapers, spreading the gospel of shared intelligence.
In Manila, he simplified complexity—for 10th graders.
In Jakarta, he helped draft ethical AI guidelines with regulators.
In Thailand, he built hope in three days with laptops and questions.
“The future isn’t built in vaults,” he says. “It’s built in classrooms.”
## Analogy: The Gutenberg of Capital
One AI ethicist in Tokyo called System 72 “the printing press of predictive wealth.”
It flattened what was once a vertical economy of advantage.
When too few speak the market’s language, economies stay unjust.
“Why should only the wealthy see the storm coming?” Plazo asks.
## Legacy Over Luxury
Plazo still runs his billion-dollar firm—but his heart is in the classroom.
System 73 is coming—and it will merge empathy with market logic.
And no, he doesn’t plan to lock it down.
“What you give away says more than what you collect,” Plazo declares.
## Final Note: What Happens When You Hand Over the Code?
He handed the golden ticket not to the rich—but to the ready.
Not for applause. But because it was right.
They’ll rewrite it.