⚔ Geopolitics risk-off · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if great-power competition over Arctic routes and resources escalates?

Competition over Arctic shipping lanes and resources amid melting ice raises great-power friction and militarization in a new contested theatre.

9%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 9% · 90% range 2–16% · 40 analogues · measured class defense 97% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — defense ≈1.2155/yr → 97% in 3 yr97%
Analyst prior · editorial share 7% of the class7%
Pooled · weight 87%9%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)9%
Published9%

The class rate is measured from our dated, sourced event library (decade-normalized Poisson — the full table is public at base_rates.json). The variant’s share within its class is the analyst’s editorial call, published so you can audit it. A wider range means thinner precedent. Full recipe: methodology · scored at Reality Check.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (gold) over time vs the crowd's (Polymarket, blue), from the past toward the 1–3 years horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. The gold path is an illustrative reconstruction anchored to today's estimate — real dated events, not a live re-estimate history.

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Competition over Arctic shipping lanes and resources amid melting ice raises great-power friction and militarization in a new contested theatre. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Climate/crop supply ▲ · Defense spending ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Trade tension ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

If it happens — the markets it would move

Biggest moves first. Projected moves are cascade-model priors; hist A–B% = what comparable past events actually did (measured abnormal returns), and model prior · unmeasured marks markets with no analogue backing yet. Tap any market for its price history.

MarketClassProjected move
1Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +7.0%
hist +0.38–+8.57% · other way -0.14% (n=11)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -3.5%
hist -2.22–-1.25% · other way -0.16% (n=11)
3Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.2%
hist -1.65–-0.58% · other way +3.27% (n=11)
4Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.4%
hist -1.33–-0.46% · other way -0.02% (n=11)
5Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.8%
hist -1.46–-0.5% · other way +6.07% (n=11)
6TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.6%
hist -2.2–+0.01% · other way +2.87% (n=11)
7AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -1.32–+0.4% · other way +0.39% (n=11)
8Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -1.35–+1.77% · other way +2.35% (n=11)
9Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -4.0–+0.79% · other way +0.15% (n=11)
10Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -2.3–+0.12% · other way +3.52% (n=11)
11S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.4%
hist -0.89–-0.53% · other way -0.37% (n=12)
12ASML ASMLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -3.6–+0.84% · other way -1.77% (n=11)
13Lockheed LMT 📈 chartEquity▲ +1.0%
hist +0.25–+0.92% · other way -4.27% (n=12)
14Qualcomm QCOMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.0%
hist -3.73–+0.87% · other way -0.31% (n=11)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Cash / hedgeRaise cash and hold the long hedges above; this scenario is net risk-off.
For a common-man portfolio: A typical stock-heavy portfolio is at risk. Consider trimming equities, raising cash, and a small gold hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -2.4% · Lockheed +1.0% · Northrop +0.9% · Chinese yuan -0.6% · High-yield credit -0.7% · Aussie dollar -0.4%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 40 analogous events (overlap‑weighted), as abnormal returns — market beta stripped, so it's the event's own effect, not the market backdrop. Shown at 20 days (persistent) and 5 days (immediate); ↺ fades = the two horizons disagree. Confidence = consistency × sample × significance.

China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 China retaliates: $50B tariff list incl. soybeans 2018-04 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Chernobyl disaster 1986-04 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Smoot-Hawley clears the US House 1929-05 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 US-China extend tariff truce by another 90 days 2025-08 Trump's 50% copper tariff sends Comex copper to a record 2025-07 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 Operation Sindoor: India strikes Pakistan after Pahalgam attack 2025-05 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Hezbollah pager and device explosions across Lebanon 2024-09 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 India slashes gold import duty from 15% to 6% in 2024 budget 2024-07 Trump 'Taiwan should pay for defense' chip selloff 2024-07 RTX takes $3B charge on Pratt & Whitney GTF engine flaw 2023-09 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 Tin hits nominal record on LME above $48,000/t 2022-03 Russia invasion sends wheat to record high 2022-03 Burkina Faso coup d'etat 2022-01 Mali coup d'etat 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 IPBES warns ~1 million species face extinction 2019-05 India's Balakot airstrike inside Pakistan 2019-02 Pulwama attack ignites India-Pakistan crisis 2019-02 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 US List 3 tariffs on $200B of Chinese goods finalized 2018-09 Turkish lira crisis 2018-08
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-4.8% · 5d -2.1%68%37 0.33✓ matches cascade
TRY TRYSHORT-1.1% · 5d +0.4% ↺ fades72%35 0.33✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.3% · 5d -0.1%64%35 0.28✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-1.7% · 5d -1.1%64%35 0.23✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+12bp · 5d +7bp61%39 0.21·
RTX RTXSHORT-0.9% · 5d -0.7%61%39 0.20⚠ differs
FCX FCXSHORT-3.6% · 5d -2.1%63%35 0.20✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+4.6% · 5d +1.2%60%36 0.17✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-0.6% · 5d -0.1%60%35 0.17✓ matches cascade
AVGO AVGOLONG+2.3% · 5d -1.5% ↺ fades59%35 0.16⚠ differs
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.2%60%35 0.16✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+4.4% · 5d +3.2%60%20 0.16⚠ differs
XLK XLKLONG+0.3% · 5d -0.6% ↺ fades59%35 0.14⚠ differs
QCOM QCOMSHORT-3.0% · 5d -2.1%59%35 0.14✓ matches cascade

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Crowd odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-07-03.