Ortigas, 2025 — Inside a glass-walled laboratory on the 16th floor of a tech tower in Ortigas, dozens of machines thrum like monks in wordless communion. On the far wall, engraved in brushed steel, five words glint in the ambient light: “Anticipate. Never react. Always evolve.”
This is the epicenter of PSR Capital, the investment firm founded by 41-year-old polymath Joseph Plazo — the man behind the AI now known as “System 72.”
With a 99% win rate in stock markets and unprecedented performance in copyright, Plazo’s self-governing AI engine isn’t just rewriting the rules of finance — it’s reframing our very perception of intelligence, strategy, and risk.
But perhaps more shocking than the numbers is what he did next.
He released it to the world.
### The Algorithm That Senses Panic Before It Happens
“We don’t just predict trends,” Plazo says, swiping gently across a glowing interface. “We sense human volatility.”
System 72, the latest in a series of 72 experimental builds over 12 years, is not just a turbo-charged trading bot. It’s a recursive deep learning engine with what Plazo calls Psychometric Market Modeling — a proprietary framework that digests trillions of data points to anticipate how people will feel before the market shifts.
“It learns from volume surges, social mood shifts, tweet tone shifts, and global economic turbulence — then mirrors behavioral archetypes simultaneously,” he explains.
The result? A system that doesn’t react to the market. It leads it like a whisper of the future.
### From Brownouts to Billionaire
A decade ago, Plazo was coding deep learning prototypes by candlelight in a rented unit in Quezon City. Electricity was unreliable. The air was oppressive. The code was primitive.
“I didn’t have Bloomberg terminals or GPU farms. Just a secondhand computer, textbooks, and raw obsession,” he says, laughing.
He had just walked away from six figures, betting his future on a dream to build a system that could out-think the market — not just with speed, but with soul.
System 27 lost him half his savings. System 43 looked promising… until it imploded during a flash crash. But he kept building. Kept refining.
By System 71, the wins were consistent. With 72, it became world-class.
“I cried when I saw the simulation complete. Not because I was rich. But because… it worked. Against all odds.”
### The Decision That Stunned Wall Street
When the board of his company reviewed System 72’s results, the reaction was predictable: License it. File intellectual property rights. Sell it to the highest bidder.
Plazo did the opposite.
“I released the source code to twelve top Asian universities,” he says. “No cost. No hedge fund gatekeeping. Just code, curiosity, and courage.”
His reason?
“I’ve seen too many people undone by economic forces they don’t understand,” he says, pausing. “My father was one of them. A smart man. Honest. But one bad investment took it all.”
Plazo’s voice fades, the room suddenly heavy. “If he had this system, he wouldn’t have lost the house.”
That pain, he says, became the motive force. The drive. The calling.
### Teaching the World to Win
Plazo has since launched a worldwide educational initiative, speaking at institutions from Japan’s top universities to the National University of Singapore. He lectures beside machine learning professors who now teach his framework to instruct students in behavioral modeling.
“Plazo’s Emotional Momentum framework is the pioneering form of behavioral AI applied to finance today,” says Dr. Hana Kim, a top academic at SeoulTech. “It doesn’t just see markets — it understands emotion.”
Students are creating applications using the tech. One PhD student in Bangalore used a modified version to predict election outcomes. Another group in Taiwan adapted it for retail demand forecasting.
“Once you understand how fear moves across networks,” Plazo says, “you can apply it to every industry.”
### The Criticism, The Praise — and the Future
Not everyone’s applauding.
Some traditionalists have condemned the release as “irresponsible,” warning that thousands of amateur traders might misuse the tech.
Others whisper darker concerns: That the open-sourced system could lead to automated trading wars in hedge fund ecosystems.
But Plazo isn’t worried.
“We here gave the world the printing press. It didn’t end language — it multiplied it. This is the same.”
For now, his firm continues to manage billions. But Plazo himself is stepping back from profit.
“I’m not building wealth anymore,” he says. “I’m building lasting impact. There’s a difference.”
### What Comes After Godmode?
As we leave the lab, the machines drone like monks. Outside, Manila traffic crawls — chaotic, unpredictable, human.
And yet somewhere, a piece of Plazo’s code is already watching, learning, sensing the ripple before it happens.
He turns back for a moment and says, “I didn’t build a system to trade stocks. I built a system to decode fear.”
In a world where uncertainty is the only constant, Joseph Plazo didn’t just create a cheat code.
He shared the power.