What if Copper backwardation blows out in a spot-tightness scare?
A sudden draw on LME stocks flips copper into steep backwardation; nearby tightness and a borrowing scramble squeeze shorts and spike cash prices.
how we built this number — every step
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 0–6 months 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.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. A sudden draw on LME stocks flips copper into steep backwardation; nearby tightness and a borrowing scramble squeeze shorts and spike cash prices. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Volatility (VIX) ▲ · Copper ▲ · Industrial demand ▲ · Risk appetite ▲ — 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.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.8% hist -1.65–+1.01% · other way +7.78% (n=12) |
| 2 | Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.7% hist -1.28–+0.64% · other way -0.13% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did
Across 36 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.
| Asset | History says | Abnormal (20d · 5d) | Hit | n | Confidence | vs cascade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XCU XCU | SHORT | -1.4% · 5d -1.4% | 64% | 27 | 0.25 | ⚠ differs |
| 10y yield DGS10 | LONG | +2bp · 5d +4bp | 59% | 35 | 0.17 | · |
| FCX FCX | SHORT | -1.9% · 5d -1.4% | 59% | 27 | 0.13 | ⚠ differs |
| Bitcoin BTC | LONG | +2.4% · 5d -2.9% ↺ fades | 57% | 18 | 0.11 | · |
| US dollar DXY | LONG | +0.3% · 5d +0.3% | 55% | 35 | 0.08 | · |
| Gold XAU | LONG | +0.5% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades | 54% | 27 | 0.06 | · |
| High-yield credit HYG | SHORT | -0.2% · 5d -0.4% | 54% | 26 | 0.06 | · |
| Volatility VIX | SHORT | -1.4% · 5d +2.9% ↺ fades | 51% | 28 | 0.01 | · |