What if North Korea agrees to phased denuclearisation?
Small, slow risk-on: phased DPRK denuclearization shaves the geopolitical safe-haven bid — gold -0.7%, VIX -6, a mild Nasdaq lift. No durable market analogue — the 2018 Singapore/Hanoi summits produced fleeting Kospi relief that faded when talks collapsed. Transmission: the cleanest local expression is Korean equities/won and reduced regional hedging demand; forward angle — multi-year, reversible, and historically prone to breakdown, so this is a slow-bleed gold-negative theme at best, not a tradable catalyst — size it as a tail-premium fade, nothing more.
how we built this number — every step
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.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a risk-on shock. North Korea agrees to phased denuclearization in exchange for security guarantees. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Geopolitical 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.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Vol | ▼ -6.3% hist -5.34–-1.17% · other way +3.96% (n=12) |
| 2 | Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▲ +2.2% hist +0.51–+1.52% · other way +0.39% (n=12) |
| 3 | Tech sector XLK 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +1.6% hist +0.36–+1.43% · other way +0.68% (n=12) |
| 4 | S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▲ +1.2% hist +0.23–+0.98% · other way -1.16% (n=12) |
| 5 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +1.1% hist -0.26–+2.56% · other way +1.3% (n=12) |
| 6 | Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▼ -0.7% hist -0.98–+0.01% · other way +1.7% (n=12) |
| 7 | MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.8% hist -5.58–+12.05% · other way +10.49% (n=12) |
| 8 | Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▲ +0.6% hist -3.13–+6.98% · other way +7.69% (n=5) |
| 9 | Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.8% hist -1.23–+3.5% · other way -1.37% (n=12) |
| 10 | AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -1.96–+0.93% · other way +1.82% (n=12) |
| 11 | Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -0.3–+1.94% · other way +4.03% (n=12) |
| 12 | Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -0.04–+1.03% · other way -0.11% (n=12) |
| 13 | TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -0.48–+2.98% · other way -0.7% (n=12) |
| 14 | Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -0.53–+2.43% · other way +1.15% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Why we may diverge from history
Trust the cascade long on INTC/ASML: the -3 to -6% history is driven by 2024 single-name shocks (refinery-strike crude, Alphabet dividend) not a Korea-denuclearization risk-on impulse — wrong channel, base rate unreliable.
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.
| Asset | History says | Abnormal (20d · 5d) | Hit | n | Confidence | vs cascade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX RTX | SHORT | -1.4% · 5d -1.5% | 65% | 40 | 0.28 | ✓ matches cascade |
| INTC INTC | SHORT | -1.8% · 5d -1.6% | 68% | 40 | 0.28 | ⚠ differs |
| TSM TSM | LONG | +2.3% · 5d -1.2% ↺ fades | 68% | 40 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| LMT LMT | SHORT | -2.5% · 5d -2.3% | 68% | 40 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| SMH SMH | LONG | +1.8% · 5d -0.2% ↺ fades | 65% | 40 | 0.26 | ✓ matches cascade |
| 10y yield DGS10 | LONG | +6bp · 5d +3bp | 65% | 40 | 0.23 | · |
| SPX SPX | LONG | +0.3% · 5d +0.7% | 62% | 40 | 0.21 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AVGO AVGO | LONG | +1.5% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades | 62% | 40 | 0.21 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AMD AMD | SHORT | -2.1% · 5d -1.6% | 62% | 40 | 0.19 | ⚠ differs |
| NDX NDX | LONG | +0.4% · 5d -0.7% ↺ fades | 62% | 40 | 0.18 | ✓ matches cascade |
| High-yield credit HYG | SHORT | -0.3% · 5d -0.1% | 62% | 40 | 0.18 | ⚠ differs |
| NOC NOC | SHORT | -0.6% · 5d -1.2% | 62% | 40 | 0.18 | ✓ matches cascade |
| QCOM QCOM | SHORT | -1.1% · 5d -1.5% | 62% | 40 | 0.18 | ⚠ differs |
| EURUSD EURUSD | LONG | +0.2% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades | 60% | 40 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
Why this probability
NK phased denuclearization repeatedly fails; Kim treats arsenal as existential; structurally low. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.