🏛 Central Banks & Macro risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if Chinese credit demand slumps to record lows as firms and households stop borrowing?

Total social financing growth slumps to record lows as private firms and households refuse to borrow, confirming a demand-side credit collapse that monetary easing cannot fix.

13%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 13% · 90% range 1–26% · 19 analogues · measured class recession 94% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — recession ≈1.9335/yr → 94% in 18 mo94%
Analyst prior · editorial share 15% of the class14%
Pooled · weight 76%14%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)14%
Published13%

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. Total social financing growth slumps to record lows as private firms and households refuse to borrow, confirming a demand-side credit collapse that monetary easing cannot fix. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — China growth ▼ · China stimulus ▼ · 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
1Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.9%
hist -17.34–+8.85% · other way -2.36% (n=12)
2Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -3.76–+1.46% · other way +0.86% (n=12)
3MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -2.41–+3.16% · other way +23.21% (n=12)
4Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.7%
hist -1.08–+0.03% · other way +3.0% (n=12)
5Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.7%
model prior · unmeasured
6China internet KWEBon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -2.53–+1.01% · other way -0.3% (n=12)
7Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.6%
hist -1.39–+0.23% · other way -0.31% (n=12)
8Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -12.66–+6.23% · other way +3.62% (n=12)
9Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -0.73–-0.07% · other way -2.98% (n=12)
10Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.5%
hist -4.01–+1.9% · other way +2.35% (n=12)
11Aussie dollar AUD 📈 chartFX▼ -0.5%
hist -0.95–+0.15% · other way -0.93% (n=12)
12Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.5%
hist -5.74–+3.28% · other way +4.72% (n=12)
13Financials XLF 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.4%
hist -0.4–-0.11% · other way +0.07% (n=12)
14Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.4%
hist -0.4–+0.02% · other way -0.23% (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 cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Freeport (copper) -0.9% · Aussie dollar -0.5% · Financials -0.4% · Tech sector -0.4% · High-yield credit -0.4% · Chinese yuan -0.3%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 19 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 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 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 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Apple cuts revenue guidance on China weakness 2019-01 China stock-market circuit-breaker fiasco 2016-01 Shanghai A-share bubble peak / crash begins 2015-06 Greek sovereign debt crisis / first EU-IMF bailout 2010-05 October 27, 1997 mini-crash 1997-10 Asian financial crisis - Thai baht float 1997-07 Tiananmen Square crackdown 1989-06 Hong Kong Stock Exchange four-day closure after Black Monday 1987-10
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-16.8% · 5d -22.6%78%9 0.41✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-12.2% · 5d -12.0%73%11 0.38✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-3.8% · 5d -2.1%73%15 0.35✓ matches cascade
US dollar DXYLONG+0.6% · 5d -0.1% ↺ fades68%19 0.32·
Volatility VIXSHORT-4.0% · 5d +5.0% ↺ fades65%17 0.24⚠ differs
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.3% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades67%15 0.23✓ matches cascade
MSTR MSTRLONG+3.8% · 5d -6.0% ↺ fades60%15 0.17⚠ differs
SMH SMHLONG+0.0% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades60%15 0.17⚠ differs
CL CLSHORT-2.1% · 5d -2.5%60%15 0.17✓ matches cascade
AUD AUDSHORT-0.6% · 5d -0.4%60%15 0.16✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-0.1% · 5d -0.8%60%15 0.16✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-0.6% · 5d -1.9%60%15 0.15✓ matches cascade
Gold XAULONG+0.9% · 5d +0.8%60%15 0.15·
NDX NDXSHORT-1.0% · 5d -1.6%58%19 0.14✓ 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.