📈 Markets & Finance mixed · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if Crack collapse squeezes Valero and Marathon refining margins?

A global refining-capacity glut compresses gasoline and diesel cracks, squeezing merchant refiners Valero and Marathon and pressuring their equities as mid-cycle margins reset structurally lower.

21%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 21% · 90% range 3–39% · 30 analogues · measured class deflation 69% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — deflation ≈0.3895/yr → 69% in 3 yr69%
Analyst prior · editorial share 29% of the class20%
Pooled · weight 83%22%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)22%
Published21%

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 mixed shock. A global refining-capacity glut compresses gasoline and diesel cracks, squeezing merchant refiners Valero and Marathon and pressuring their equities as mid-cycle margins reset structurally lower. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Diesel ▼ · Gasoline ▼ · 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.

MarketClassProjected move
1Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.3%
hist -5.26–+6.15% · other way +1.03% (n=7)
2Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.3%
model prior · unmeasured
3MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -1.3–+2.53% · other way +9.85% (n=10)
4Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.2%
hist -1.54–+0.98% · other way +6.17% (n=7)
5Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.2%
hist -0.22–+0.32% · other way -0.49% (n=11)
6Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.2%
hist -1.42–+1.68% · other way +6.46% (n=7)
7Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.1%
hist -0.2–+0.21% · other way -0.41% (n=10)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Long
For a common-man portfolio: Mixed for a typical portfolio — the move is more about rotation than direction. Favour the winners over the losers below rather than net exposure.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -0.1%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 30 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.

Henry Hub natural gas hits a 25-year low amid record US production 2024-11 Waha hub natural gas prices crash to record negative on Permian glut 2024-08 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Norilsk Nickel Arctic diesel spill 2020-05 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 SNB introduces negative interest rates 2014-12 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Oil collapses from $147 to the $30s as the GFC craters demand 2008-12 Henry Hub natural gas spot price peaks during 2008 commodity boom 2008-07 Platinum hits all-time record near $2,290 on South African power crisis 2008-03 South Africa Eskom power emergency spikes platinum/PGMs 2008-01 Amaranth Advisors natural-gas blowup 2006-09 Northeast blackout cascading grid failure hits ~55 million 2003-08 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Chernobyl disaster 1986-04 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Three Mile Island partial meltdown 1979-03 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
Gold XAULONG+0.7% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades60%23 0.20·
10y yield DGS10SHORT-1bp · 5d +1bp ↺ fades61%30 0.20·
Volatility VIXLONG+3.1% · 5d -2.2% ↺ fades60%24 0.16·
NDX NDXLONG+0.4% · 5d -1.0% ↺ fades60%25 0.15⚠ differs
SOL SOLLONG+6.9% · 5d -6.7% ↺ fades54%11 0.06⚠ differs
MSTR MSTRLONG+2.6% · 5d -4.2% ↺ fades54%23 0.06⚠ differs
XLK XLKLONG+0.3% · 5d -0.7% ↺ fades52%23 0.03⚠ differs
ETH ETHSHORT-1.4% · 5d -3.1%46%11 0.00✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCLONG+1.9% · 5d -1.9% ↺ fades37%14 0.00⚠ differs
US dollar DXYLONG+0.1% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades47%30 0.00·
High-yield credit HYGLONG+0.6% · 5d -0.2% ↺ fades48%21 0.00·

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.