🛢 Energy & Commodities risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if Chinese steel output contracts and sends iron ore from $120 toward $70 per tonne?

Chinese steel output contracts on a property hard landing, pushing iron ore from ~$120 to ~$70/t (a Dalian/SGX-tracked move) and slashing terms-of-trade for Australia and Brazil exporters.

19%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 19% · 90% range 8–29% · 40 analogues · measured class growth 94% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — growth ≈1.8868/yr → 94% in 18 mo94%
Analyst prior · editorial share 19% of the class18%
Pooled · weight 87%19%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)19%
Published19%

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 6–18 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. Chinese steel output contracts on a property hard landing, pushing iron ore from ~$120 to ~$70/t (a Dalian/SGX-tracked move) and slashing terms-of-trade for Australia and Brazil exporters. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — China growth ▼ · Industrial demand ▼ · Recession signal ▲ · 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
1Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -4.17–+0.98% · other way +0.11% (n=11)
2Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.8%
hist -2.41–+0.28% · other way +1.82% (n=11)
3Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.8%
hist -8.02–+3.24% · other way -3.07% (n=10)
4Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.6%
model prior · unmeasured
5MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -0.7–+0.85% · other way +30.63% (n=11)
6Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -8.05–+2.94% · other way +5.06% (n=10)
7China internet KWEBon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -3.3–+0.77% · other way -0.98% (n=10)
8Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.5%
hist -0.6–-0.03% · other way -0.38% (n=11)
9Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.5%
hist -0.24–+1.09% · other way -0.1% (n=11)
10Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -1.9–+0.42% · other way -4.19% (n=10)
11Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.4%
hist -4.06–+1.42% · other way +6.9% (n=10)
12Aussie dollar AUD 📈 chartFX▼ -0.4%
hist -0.69–+0.05% · other way -0.96% (n=11)
13Financials XLF 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -1.34–+0.27% · other way +0.11% (n=11)
14Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.3%
hist -0.29–-0.06% · other way -0.63% (n=11)

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): Freeport (copper) -1.3% · Aussie dollar -0.4% · Financials -0.3% · Chinese yuan -0.3% · High-yield credit -0.3% · 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.

August 24, 2015 ETF flash crash 2015-08 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 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Offshore yuan hits a record low 2022-11 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 Alibaba upsizes buyback to record $25 billion 2022-03 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Evergrande debt crisis - global selloff 2021-09 Didi removed from China app stores after NYSE IPO 2021-07 Bitcoin May 2021 crash 2021-05 Copper tops $10,000 a tonne for the first time since 2011 2021-04 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Apple cuts revenue guidance on China weakness 2019-01 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 China stock-market circuit-breaker fiasco 2016-01 China's PBOC reveals 57% jump in gold reserves after six-year silence 2015-07 Shanghai A-share bubble peak / crash begins 2015-06 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Greek sovereign debt crisis / first EU-IMF bailout 2010-05 Copper crashes to ~$1.30/lb as 2008 crisis crushes China demand 2008-12 Oil collapses from $147 to the $30s as the GFC craters demand 2008-12 China 4 trillion yuan stimulus 2008-11 October 27, 1997 mini-crash 1997-10 Asian financial crisis - Thai baht float 1997-07 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Tiananmen Square crackdown 1989-06 Hong Kong Stock Exchange four-day closure after Black Monday 1987-10 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
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-1.8% · 5d -1.1%67%30 0.29✓ matches cascade
XPT XPTSHORT-0.2% · 5d +1.6% ↺ fades67%30 0.29✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-7.3% · 5d -15.0%67%15 0.25✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.0% · 5d -0.2%63%30 0.25✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-7.3% · 5d -7.4%65%17 0.24✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-1.1% · 5d -0.5%63%30 0.24✓ matches cascade
Gold XAULONG+1.4% · 5d +0.8%63%30 0.24·
KWEB KWEBSHORT-2.7% · 5d -2.6%62%24 0.23✓ matches cascade
COIN COINSHORT-4.9% · 5d -3.5%62%13 0.20✓ matches cascade
BABA BABASHORT-1.5% · 5d -3.2%61%23 0.18✓ matches cascade
XPD XPDSHORT-2.4% · 5d -1.5%60%30 0.16✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-1.5% · 5d -2.9%60%30 0.15✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10SHORT-8bp · 5d -6bp57%40 0.15·
FCX FCXSHORT-3.3% · 5d -1.4%56%32 0.12✓ 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.