By Special Feature by Forbes Asia
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.
The room froze as one command line appeared—quietly holding the blueprint of financial warfare.
“This,” he said, pausing, “is the core of the system that beat every market it touched.”
“And now it’s yours to evolve.”
## The Code That Outplayed Wall Street
Godmode—formally known as System 72—emerged after 12 years and 71 failures.
System 72 blends behavioral forecasting, sentiment parsing, and high-frequency trade logic.
It listens to the world—from memes to macro—and acts with surgical precision.
“Markets aren’t equations,” Plazo explains. “They’re emotional theaters.”
And System 72 delivered.
It predicted the 2024 tech rally. It anticipated 2025’s altcoin run—48 hours early.
System 72 wasn’t just smart. It was surgical.
## Then Came the Twist
One afternoon, overlooking Manila’s skyline, Plazo dropped a bomb on his partners.
“I’m releasing the core engine to the public,” he told his team.
The room froze. One exec dropped his pen. Another asked if it was satire.
He wasn’t licensing the code. He wasn’t monetizing it. He was giving away the brain of the most profitable AI in finance.
“Genius shouldn’t be hoarded,” Plazo told Forbes. “It should be cultivated.”
## The Educational read more Revolution That Followed
Soon, labs from Singapore to Japan were adapting the code in wildly creative ways.
Tokyo teams applied it to logistics. Students in Manila used it for AI-powered budgeting.
“It’s the scaffolding for a thousand future systems,” said a Kyoto researcher.
Even the IMF quietly requested a trial.
## Critics, Controversy, and the Ethics of Genius
Naturally, the elite weren’t thrilled.
“This is financial anarchy,” warned a U.S. fund manager.
Plazo stayed firm.
“You don’t blame the scalpel,” he said. “You train the hand.”
He retained control of execution layers, capital buffers, and trading safeguards.
“The skeleton’s yours to build,” he added.
## Real Stories from the Ground
A part-time data analyst in Manila launched a startup after six months of trading.
In Vietnam, rural scholars built a financial literacy app to hedge vendor losses.
In Mumbai, a student cried as he shared: “I never thought I’d understand markets. Now I build AI.”
## The Philosophy That Powers the Gift
His reason? “Because monopolizing insight is the slowest way to grow.”
To him, information is like air. Shared. Essential. And free.
“The real risk is keeping power in too few hands,” he told me.
## Conclusion: The Joystick Is Yours Now
Back on campus, Plazo watches students code with the same hunger he once had.
“Trading was just the beginning,” he says. “This is about agency.”
In a data-driven age, he opened the source of brilliance.
And somewhere, a kid is writing the next version of System 72—because now, they can.