By Special Feature by Forbes Asia
The man who outplayed the market didn’t lock away his creation. He set it free.
Hong Kong, 2025 — Inside a lecture hall at the University of Hong Kong, Joseph Plazo prepared to blow the minds of finance's future.
The room froze as one command line appeared—quietly holding the blueprint of financial warfare.
“This line of code,” he said, “is what beat Wall Street.”
Then he added: “And you’re going to improve it.”
## 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 scrapes Reddit threads, decodes Fed speech stress levels, reads derivatives flow, and parses tweet tone.
“Markets aren’t equations,” Plazo explains. “They’re emotional theaters.”
What followed was a masterclass in predictive finance.
It shorted dips, longed rallies, and sidestepped black swans.
Plazo’s firm made billions.
## Then Came the Twist
Sitting in his boardroom, he made a decision no financier expected.
“I’m releasing the core engine to the public,” he told his team.
It wasn’t a joke. It was a paradigm shift.
No hedge fund exclusives. No paywalls. Just code—for students.
“Genius shouldn’t be hoarded,” Plazo told Forbes. “It should be cultivated.”
## The Educational Revolution That Followed
Soon, labs from Singapore to Japan were adapting the code in wildly creative ways.
Jakarta students used it to detect unrest. Seoul labs used it to predict EV charging loads.
“This could be AI’s Gutenberg moment,” one Singapore professor claimed.
Even the IMF quietly requested a trial.
## Critics, Controversy, and the Ethics of Genius
Naturally, the elite weren’t thrilled.
“He’s playing with fire,” said a Wall Street analyst.
But Plazo didn’t blink.
“You don’t blame the scalpel,” he said. “You train the hand.”
You can access the mind. You still need to build the body.
“We gave the world the brain,” he said. “Now let’s see who builds the best nervous system.”
## Real Stories from the Ground
A mother in the Philippines built a tech business after studying the open-source code.
Vietnamese undergrads used the model to stabilize food market risk.
“This gave us hope,” said a 21-year-old student in India.
## The Philosophy That Powers the Gift
When click here asked why he did it, Plazo’s answer was simple: “Power should compound, not consolidate.”
To him, information is like air. Shared. Essential. And free.
“What scares me isn’t misuse—it’s missed opportunity,” he explained.
## 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.”
While others hoarded secrets, he gave away power.
Thanks to Plazo, the future might be written in code… by someone the market never saw coming.