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 By the Forbes Editorial Team
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.
Bloomberg reporters scribbled beside AI engineers. Professors sat next to grad students. Everyone leaned in.
Plazo smiled and began: “This is what billionaires don’t want you to understand.”
He didn’t pitch. He didn’t charge. He gave away a weaponized form of prediction.
## The Unlikely Hero of High Finance
Plazo didn’t climb the ladder through Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley.
He came from the streets of Quezon City—with a secondhand laptop and relentless focus.
“The market is biased—toward those with access,” he once said. “I wanted to balance the scales.”
So he trained a system to understand investors better than investors understood themselves.
When it clicked, he didn’t monetize. He democratized.
## 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.
“This belongs to all of us,” he told professors. “Break it. Rebuild it. Teach it.”
## 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.
“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 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.”
Just as Gutenberg democratized knowledge, Plazo democratized prediction.
The elite guard algorithms. Plazo hands out the keys.
“Prediction is oxygen,” he says. “Stop bottling it.”
## Legacy Over Luxury
The firm thrives, but his soul lives in System 72’s classrooms.
System 73? “It’ll feel the world more than it measures it,” he hints.
And just like before—he’ll share it.
“Wealth check here should signal your power to uplift—not your capacity to hoard,” he says.
## Final Note: What Happens When You Hand Over the Code?
In a world where code is currency, Joseph Plazo gave his away.
Not for fame. Not for flash. For faith in what’s next.
And if his students succeed, they won’t just beat the market.