🛢 Energy & Commodities mixed · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if multi-year drought collapses hydropower across Brazil, Zambia and Southeast Asia?

Multi-year drought collapses hydropower output across Brazil, Zambia and Southeast Asia, forcing costly fossil substitution and power rationing the IMF flags for emerging-market growth and inflation.

12%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 12% · 90% range 3–22% · 30 analogues · measured class energy 99% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — energy ≈1.4869/yr → 99% in 3 yr99%
Analyst prior · editorial share 11% of the class11%
Pooled · weight 83%13%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)13%
Published12%

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. Multi-year drought collapses hydropower output across Brazil, Zambia and Southeast Asia, forcing costly fossil substitution and power rationing the IMF flags for emerging-market growth and inflation. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — EM currencies ▼ · Natural gas ▲ · Climate/crop supply ▲ · European energy ▼ · Inflation surprise ▲ — 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
1Wheat WHEATon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.7%
hist -0.28–+0.77% · other way -0.51% (n=12)
2Corn CORNon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.7%
hist -1.38–+1.46% · other way +4.33% (n=12)
3Natural gas NGon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.5%
hist -12.69–+3.42% · other way +0.68% (n=12)
4Turkish lira TRY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.4%
hist -0.45–+0.32% · other way +1.18% (n=12)
5Indian rupee INR 📈 chartFX▼ -0.3%
hist -0.28–+0.19% · other way +0.53% (n=12)
6Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.2%
hist -0.22–+0.07% · other way -0.13% (n=12)
7Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.2%
hist -0.17–-0.04% · other way -1.45% (n=12)
830y Treasury yield DGS30 📈 chartRate▲ +1bp
hist -4.73–+11.79% · other way -3.8% (n=12)
910y Treasury yield DGS10 📈 chartRate▲ +1bp
hist -2.0–+5.73% · other way -7.0% (n=12)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
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): Turkish lira -0.4% · Indian rupee -0.3% · Chinese yuan -0.2% · 30y Treasury yield +1bp · 10y Treasury yield +1bp

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.

PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02 Northeast blackout cascading grid failure hits ~55 million 2003-08 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 H5N1 bird flu record US egg prices 2025-04 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 European gas crisis intraday record spike 2021-10 California rolling blackouts during a record heatwave 2020-08 Norilsk Nickel Arctic diesel spill 2020-05 IPBES warns ~1 million species face extinction 2019-05 Crude oil all-time high 2008-07 Crude oil all-time high 2008-07 ECB's ill-timed pre-crisis rate hike 2008-07 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 1990-91 recession onset 1990-07 Argentina hyperinflation peak / Alfonsin early handover 1989-07 Chernobyl disaster 1986-04 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 1979-12 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Volcker Saturday Night Special 1979-10 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1978-12 1974 sugar price spike to record 65+ cents 1974-11 1973-75 recession onset 1973-11 Nixon Shock 1971-08
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
NG NGSHORT-11.3% · 5d -4.9%73%17 0.44⚠ differs
INR INRLONG+0.3% · 5d +0.4%65%16 0.25⚠ differs
TRY TRYLONG+0.5% · 5d +1.9%59%16 0.15⚠ differs
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.2% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades59%15 0.13·
WHEAT WHEATSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.9%54%17 0.08⚠ differs
Volatility VIXSHORT-2.0% · 5d -1.6%54%18 0.06·
US dollar DXYLONG+0.3% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades53%30 0.05·
30y yield DGS30LONG+11bp · 5d +7bp52%27 0.03✓ matches cascade
Gold XAUSHORT-1.0% · 5d -0.1%51%17 0.03·
CORN CORNSHORT-1.9% · 5d -2.1%38%17 0.00⚠ differs
CNY CNYLONG+0.2% · 5d -0.1% ↺ fades46%17 0.00⚠ differs
SMH SMHSHORT-0.1% · 5d -0.5%46%17 0.00✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+5bp · 5d +5bp48%30 0.00✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCLONG+6.4% · 5d +2.8%50%9 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.