📈 Markets & Finance risk-off · 0–6 months
A what‑if from the future

What if CTA momentum unwind triggers a sharp copper sell-off?

Trend-following funds flip from long to short as copper breaks key moving averages; the systematic selling overwhelms physical buyers and price drops fast.

21%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 21% · 90% range 8–34% · 40 analogues · measured class growth 61% in 6 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — growth ≈1.8868/yr → 61% in 6 mo61%
Analyst prior · editorial share 36% of the class22%
Pooled · weight 87%21%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)21%
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 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.

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Trend-following funds flip from long to short as copper breaks key moving averages; the systematic selling overwhelms physical buyers and price drops fast. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Copper ▼ · Industrial demand ▼ · Risk appetite ▼ · Risk-parity deleveraging ▲ — 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
1Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -6.37–+0.78% · other way +8.79% (n=11)
2Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.6%
hist -2.79–+0.47% · other way +0.37% (n=11)
3Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.4%
hist -0.35–-0.07% · other way +2.32% (n=11)
4Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.3%
hist -8.16–+1.42% · other way -9.89% (n=8)
5Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.3%
model prior · unmeasured
6Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -0.26–+0.19% · other way +3.4% (n=11)
7MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -1.2–+0.41% · other way +16.26% (n=11)
8Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.2%
hist -10.22–+1.32% · other way +1.7% (n=8)
9S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.2%
hist -0.18–+0.3% · other way +1.15% (n=12)
10Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.2%
hist -3.2–+0.87% · other way +5.18% (n=8)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Long
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 cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Freeport (copper) -0.6% · Tech sector -0.3%

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.

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 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 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 Fatal mud-rush halts Freeport's Grasberg, tightening copper supply 2025-09 Trump's 50% copper tariff sends Comex copper to a record 2025-07 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 Anglo American demerges Valterra Platinum 2025-06 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Tesla shares crater on DOGE political backlash and Europe sales collapse 2025-03 DRC suspends cobalt exports 2025-02 TSMC slumps as DeepSeek roils AI-chip demand assumptions 2025-02 Micron's weak FQ2 guidance sparks a sharp December selloff 2024-12 Henry Hub natural gas hits a 25-year low amid record US production 2024-11 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Waha hub natural gas prices crash to record negative on Permian glut 2024-08 Nikkei 225 record single-day rebound 2024-08 Nikkei 225 worst single-day crash since 1987 2024-08 KOSPI biggest-ever point loss triggers circuit breaker 2024-08 VIX third-highest spike on record 2024-08 Intel's Q2 earnings trigger its worst single-day crash since 1974 2024-08 Megacap AI-capex doubt selloff 2024-07 India slashes gold import duty from 15% to 6% in 2024 budget 2024-07 Trump 'Taiwan should pay for defense' chip selloff 2024-07 India's Modi loses single-party majority 2024-06 Mexico's Sheinbaum landslide + supermajority scare 2024-06 BHP abandons $49bn takeover bid for Anglo American 2024-05
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
FCX FCXSHORT-5.1% · 5d -1.8%74%33 0.39✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-8.3% · 5d -5.9%75%28 0.39✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-6.8% · 5d -6.5%72%28 0.32✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-2.2% · 5d -1.2%67%33 0.31✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+6.0% · 5d -0.6% ↺ fades66%34 0.27·
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-2.8% · 5d -2.3%64%30 0.22✓ matches cascade
SPX SPXLONG+0.3% · 5d +0.1%62%40 0.21⚠ differs
Gold XAULONG+0.8% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades62%33 0.20·
US dollar DXYSHORT-0.2% · 5d +0.2% ↺ fades61%40 0.19·
NDX NDXSHORT-0.1% · 5d -1.2%61%35 0.15✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.1% · 5d +-0.0%60%33 0.15·
10y yield DGS10SHORT-4bp · 5d +1bp ↺ fades55%40 0.10·
XLK XLKLONG+0.3% · 5d -0.9% ↺ fades55%33 0.07⚠ differs
MSTR MSTRSHORT-1.0% · 5d -3.6%50%33 0.00✓ 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.