JOSEPH PLAZO OUTSMARTED WALL STREET—AND HANDED THE PLAYBOOK TO STUDENTS

By Guest Columnist, Forbes AsiaWall Street never saw him coming—because Joseph Plazo never played by its rules.Quezon City, Philippines — Ten years ago, Joseph Plazo sat under flickering candlelight, debugging neural nets while the city powered down.The laptop was old. The electricity, unstable. But his resolve didn’t flicker.He built, in obs

By Guest Columnist, Forbes AsiaHe wasn’t from the finance elite. That’s how he beat them all.Quezon City, Philippines — A decade ago, Joseph Plazo coded algorithms during brownouts, lit by candles and ambition.A secondhand laptop. A wobbly table. But the simulations ran.He was coding a tool the world hadn’t asked for—an algorithm that cou