How a Self-Taught Filipino Coder Gave the Market a Conscience

By Forbes Contributor

Wall Street never saw him coming—because Joseph Plazo never played by its rules.

Quezon City, Philippines — A decade ago, Joseph Plazo coded algorithms during brownouts, lit by candles and ambition.

A secondhand laptop. A wobbly table. But the simulations ran.

He was coding a tool the world hadn’t asked for—an algorithm that could feel panic before it showed up on a chart.

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.

Instead, he read machine learning papers at night and hustled consulting gigs by day.

“Emotion leads price. That’s what I taught my machine,” says Plazo.

There were 71 failures before the breakthrough.

Then came System 72. It tracked behavior, not just price.

## The Day the Machine Spoke Louder Than Noise

During a panic in 2024, his AI spotted the optimism nobody saw.

Behind the panic, the machine found patterns—and profits.

By fall, it was beating markets at their own game.

Hedge funds circled. Plazo said no.

## The Shock Move: Give It to the Kids

Rather than sell, Plazo shocked the world: he gave System 72 to twelve Asian universities.

Kyoto, NUS, Indian IITs—all got access to the system.

“I built this for understanding—not control,” Plazo announced.

## A New Breed of Thinkers

Today, students across Asia are redefining finance education with System 72.

Some optimize logistics. Others model weather resilience. One group gamified AI for kids.

“It’s behavioral finance—made teachable,” said one young developer.

## Pushback from the Power Players

Economists called it reckless.

“You don’t hand kids a nuke,” one manager scoffed.

But Plazo didn’t back down.

“A tool is only as moral as its user,” he told a Jakarta audience.

The engine’s out there. The steering wheel’s click here still locked.

## Legacy: Code as Redemption

He told the crowd, “This isn’t about AI. It’s about dignity.”

This isn’t just innovation. It’s closure.

He built a door where there was a wall.

## What If the Oracle 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 72 was mine. 73? That’s for all of us.”

And in that bet, Joseph Plazo may have already won.

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