He Built the World’s Smartest Trading AI—Then Taught It to Students
He Built the World’s Smartest Trading AI—Then Taught It to Students
Blog Article
By Guest Analyst, Forbes Asia
He conquered Wall Street’s edge—and handed it to students.
Seoul, South Korea — The auditorium at Seoul National University was packed as Joseph Plazo, founder of Plazo Sullivan Roche Capital, took the stage.
The audience was electric—hedge fund analysts beside machine learning prodigies.
Plazo leaned into the mic and said: “What I’m about to teach you—hedge funds would kill to keep hidden.”
He didn’t pitch. He didn’t charge. He gave away a weaponized form of prediction.
## The Unlikely Hero of High Finance
You won’t find Joseph Plazo in Wharton yearbooks or JP Morgan memoirs.
His roots? Quezon City, Philippines. His resources? A battered laptop and boundless grit.
“Markets reward the informed,” he told students in Singapore. “But no one ever taught the rest how to play.”
So he built an AI—not just to track numbers, but to decode fear, greed, and global emotion.
When it worked, he didn’t sell it. He shared it.
## Stealing Fire—and Lighting the World
It took 12 years and 72 attempts to perfect the algorithm.
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.
Indonesian engineers used it to balance energy demand across scattered regions.
In Malaysia, undergrads helped local shops hedge currency risk.
He wasn’t sharing tech. He was rewriting access.
“Prediction shouldn’t be elite,” he told Kyoto students. “It should be public literacy.”
## Wall Street’s Whisper Campaign
Predictably, not everyone cheered.
“This idealism will blow up in his face,” scoffed a fund manager.
Plazo remained unmoved.
“Leverage 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 website vertical economy of advantage.
The elite guard algorithms. Plazo hands out the keys.
“Why should only the wealthy see the storm coming?” Plazo asks.
## Legacy Over Luxury
The firm thrives, but his soul lives in System 72’s classrooms.
System 73 is coming—and it will merge empathy with market logic.
And he won’t keep that secret either.
“Wealth should signal your power to uplift—not your capacity to hoard,” he says.
## 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.
And if his students succeed, they won’t just beat the market.