🛢 Energy & Commodities risk-off · 0–6 months
A what‑if from the future

What if a Hormuz closure sends Brent toward $180 and forces emergency stock releases?

A Strait of Hormuz closure removes a fifth of seaborne crude, sending Brent toward $180 and forcing European refiners and governments into emergency-stock releases.

6%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 6% · 90% range 0–12% · 40 analogues · measured class energy 52% in 6 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — energy ≈1.4869/yr → 52% in 6 mo52%
Analyst prior · editorial share 10% of the class5%
Pooled · weight 87%6%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)6%
Published6%

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. A Strait of Hormuz closure removes a fifth of seaborne crude, sending Brent toward $180 and forcing European refiners and governments into emergency-stock releases. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Diesel ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Oil supply risk ▲ — 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▲ +9.1%
hist +1.78–+6.64% · other way -10.38% (n=12)
2Brent crude BRENTon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +5.4%
hist +1.53–+3.4% · other way -1.15% (n=12)
3WTI crude CLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +4.5%
hist +0.09–+3.13% · other way +2.17% (n=12)
4Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -4.6%
hist -2.92–-1.29% · other way +0.13% (n=12)
5Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -3.6%
hist -2.2–-1.18% · other way +0.17% (n=12)
6Energy sector XLEon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▲ +3.1%
hist +0.58–+3.13% · other way +0.47% (n=12)
7S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -2.3%
hist -2.1–-0.55% · other way +0.95% (n=12)
8MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.6%
hist -2.63–+2.52% · other way +16.28% (n=12)
9United Airlines UAL 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.7%
hist -3.04–+5.21% · other way +5.49% (n=12)
10ExxonMobil XOM 📈 chartEquity▲ +2.2%
hist -0.07–+3.28% · other way -2.14% (n=12)
11Chevron CVX 📈 chartEquity▲ +2.0%
hist +0.07–+2.58% · other way -0.11% (n=12)
12Delta DAL 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.3%
hist -1.55–+2.04% · other way +5.38% (n=12)
13Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.7%
hist -1.14–+1.08% · other way -1.62% (n=10)
14Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.7%
hist -1.85–-0.19% · other way +9.86% (n=10)

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 cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -3.6% · United Airlines -2.7% · ExxonMobil +2.2% · Chevron +2.0% · Delta -2.3% · 30y Treasury yield +12bp

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 peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 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 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 1979-12 Volcker Saturday Night Special 1979-10 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1978-12 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 Hezbollah pager and device explosions across Lebanon 2024-09 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 April 2024 Iranian drone-and-missile barrage on Israel 2024-04 Ukrainian drone strikes hit Russian refineries, lifting crude and gasoline 2024-03 Gabon coup d'etat 2023-08 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 ExxonMobil posts most profitable year for any US oil company 2023-01 PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 2022-09 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 US-led 240-million-barrel SPR release answers the Ukraine spike 2022-03 Houthi drone-and-missile strike on Aramco's Jeddah depot 2022-03 Tin hits nominal record on LME above $48,000/t 2022-03 Burkina Faso coup d'etat 2022-01 Houthi drone-and-missile attack on Abu Dhabi oil sites lifts Brent to 7-year high 2022-01 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 European gas crisis intraday record spike 2021-10 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
USDJPY USDJPYLONG+1.8% · 5d +0.5%75%31 0.47✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.1%68%31 0.34✓ matches cascade
TSM TSMSHORT-2.6% · 5d -2.8%69%31 0.30✓ matches cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-4.2% · 5d -1.6%66%34 0.29✓ matches cascade
AMD AMDSHORT-2.1% · 5d -1.6%69%34 0.28✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+16bp · 5d +9bp64%40 0.27✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+7.5% · 5d +1.4%65%25 0.26⚠ differs
Volatility VIXLONG+2.2% · 5d +3.6%65%32 0.25✓ matches cascade
DAL DALLONG+2.8% · 5d +0.0%63%31 0.24⚠ differs
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.2%65%31 0.22✓ matches cascade
30y yield DGS30LONG+16bp · 5d +8bp60%40 0.20✓ matches cascade
HOOD HOODLONG+4.2% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades61%25 0.20⚠ differs
CVX CVXLONG+1.4% · 5d +0.2%60%40 0.19✓ matches cascade
GBPUSD GBPUSDSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.1%62%31 0.19✓ 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.