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

What if Naval clash in Hormuz spikes the war premium?

A direct US-Iran naval engagement in the Strait of Hormuz, short of full closure, still freezes tanker traffic for days and sends Brent and freight sharply higher.

9%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 9% · 90% range 0–19% · 40 analogues · measured class vol_spike 31% in 6 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — vol_spike ≈0.7371/yr → 31% in 6 mo31%
Analyst prior · editorial share 32% of the class10%
Pooled · weight 87%10%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)10%
Published9%

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 direct US-Iran naval engagement in the Strait of Hormuz, short of full closure, still freezes tanker traffic for days and sends Brent and freight sharply higher. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Volatility (VIX) ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Oil supply risk ▲ · 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
1Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +9.6%
hist +1.54–+6.93% · other way -9.61% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -4.3%
hist -2.14–-1.13% · other way +0.27% (n=12)
3Brent crude BRENTon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +3.6%
hist +1.29–+2.21% · other way +0.33% (n=12)
4WTI crude CLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +3.0%
hist -0.34–+1.93% · other way +4.42% (n=12)
5Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -3.1%
hist -2.0–-1.01% · other way +0.29% (n=12)
6S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -2.4%
hist -2.17–-0.56% · other way +0.66% (n=12)
7MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.5%
hist -2.56–+1.45% · other way +11.86% (n=12)
8Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.9%
hist -3.56–+4.34% · other way -1.88% (n=11)
9Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.0%
hist -1.27–-0.4% · other way -0.2% (n=12)
10Energy sector XLEon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▲ +2.1%
hist +0.07–+2.72% · other way +0.21% (n=12)
11Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -1.5%
model prior · unmeasured
12Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.4%
hist -1.21–-0.34% · other way +8.87% (n=11)
13Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.3%
hist -3.07–+0.51% · other way +4.46% (n=11)
14United Airlines UAL 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.8%
hist -1.84–+1.0% · other way +5.33% (n=12)

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 gold hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -3.1% · United Airlines -1.8% · ExxonMobil +1.5% · Chevron +1.4% · Delta -1.5% · High-yield credit -1.1%

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.

Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 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 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 Thailand 2014 military coup 2014-05 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 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 Hezbollah pager and device explosions across Lebanon 2024-09 VIX third-highest spike on record 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 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 2022-09 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 Houthi drone-and-missile attack on Abu Dhabi oil sites lifts Brent to 7-year high 2022-01 Evergrande debt crisis - global selloff 2021-09 Myanmar military coup 2021-02 COVID-19 fourth circuit breaker 2020-03 Abqaiq-Khurais strike triggers the biggest Brent spike on record 2019-09 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Houthi drones strike Saudi East-West crude pipeline 2019-05 Worst Christmas Eve selloff on record 2018-12 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 China-led global 'Black Monday' rout 2015-08 SEC approves Limit Up-Limit Down plan and revised market-wide circuit breakers 2012-05 US-downgrade Black Monday equity rout and VIX spike to 48 2011-08 Libya civil war halts output and lifts Brent above $100 2011-02 VIX record intraday high of 89.53 2008-10 Shanghai Sneeze global selloff with then-record VIX spike 2007-02 2006 Lebanon War oil spike 2006-07
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
CVX CVXLONG+1.5% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades67%40 0.32✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+7.9% · 5d +1.8%66%17 0.27⚠ differs
10y yield DGS10LONG+4bp · 5d +5bp65%40 0.26✓ matches cascade
INR INRSHORT-0.3% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades65%38 0.24✓ matches cascade
QCOM QCOMSHORT-3.6% · 5d -2.4%66%38 0.23✓ matches cascade
NDX NDXSHORT-0.2% · 5d -0.7%65%39 0.22✓ matches cascade
AMD AMDSHORT-1.4% · 5d -0.8%65%39 0.22✓ matches cascade
ARM ARMSHORT-5.0% · 5d -6.1%68%8 0.22✓ matches cascade
MRVL MRVLSHORT-1.8% · 5d -1.4%64%38 0.21✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.1%60%38 0.19✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-0.8% · 5d -3.1%61%38 0.17✓ matches cascade
NOC NOCLONG+1.2% · 5d -0.4% ↺ fades61%39 0.17✓ matches cascade
HOOD HOODLONG+5.1% · 5d +0.5%61%17 0.17⚠ differs
30y yield DGS30LONG+5bp · 5d +5bp58%40 0.15✓ 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.