By Special Feature by Forbes Asia
What if someone created a market cheat code—and then uploaded it for the world to use?
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.”
“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.
It marries algorithmic speed with emotional insight, producing near-psychic trades.
It processes voice inflection, tweet patterns, derivatives, newsfeeds—then acts.
“We built a machine to sense fear before it echoes in the charts,” he adds.
The results? Astonishing.
It dodged crashes. Nailed rallies. Some weeks, it never lost.
System 72 wasn’t just smart. It was surgical.
## 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.
“It’s not just a financial AI anymore,” said Professor Takahashi of Tokyo University.
International agencies asked for a look under the hood.
## Critics, Controversy, and the Ethics of Genius
Some called it dangerous. Others called it disruptive.
“This is financial anarchy,” warned a U.S. fund manager.
Plazo stayed firm.
“We can’t outlaw brilliance,” he added. “We need to teach it.”
He retained control of execution layers, capital buffers, and trading safeguards.
“The skeleton’s yours to build,” he added.
## Real Stories from the Ground
In Manila, a single mom turned $400 into $14,000 using a simplified version.
Students in Hanoi designed tools for small merchants to beat food price swings.
A Mumbai coder called it “the key that opened my family's future.”
## The Philosophy That Powers the Gift
His reason? “Because monopolizing insight is the slowest way to grow.”
To him, information get more info 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
As students huddle over keyboards, simulating real-time trades, Plazo smiles at the scene.
“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.
Comments on “Wall Street’s Smartest Trading AI Is Now in Students’ Hands”