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

What if Red Sea diversion keeps diesel cracks elevated?

Persistent Houthi risk keeps tankers on the long Cape route, sustaining elevated diesel and jet-fuel cracks and a structural goods-freight premium into the year.

15%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 15% · 90% range 4–26% · 40 analogues · measured class energy 52% in 6 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — energy ≈1.4869/yr → 52% in 6 mo52%
Analyst prior · editorial share 31% of the class16%
Pooled · weight 87%15%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)15%
Published15%

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. Persistent Houthi risk keeps tankers on the long Cape route, sustaining elevated diesel and jet-fuel cracks and a structural goods-freight premium into the year. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Diesel ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Jet fuel ▲ · 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▲ +5.1%
hist +0.48–+5.63% · other way -6.59% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -2.0%
hist -1.17–-0.48% · other way -0.44% (n=12)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -0.95–-0.15% · other way -0.44% (n=12)
4S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.1%
hist -1.29–-0.09% · other way +0.44% (n=12)
5Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -0.63–-0.09% · other way +0.94% (n=12)
6MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -1.47–+2.98% · other way +30.67% (n=12)
7Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.8%
hist -3.61–+9.03% · other way -0.88% (n=11)
8Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.7%
model prior · unmeasured
9Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -1.99–+0.6% · other way +6.43% (n=11)
10Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -0.91–-0.01% · other way +1.1% (n=12)
11Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.5%
hist -0.77–+0.84% · other way +8.97% (n=11)
12High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.6%
hist -0.8–+0.01% · other way -0.64% (n=12)
13Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.5%
hist +0.1–+0.33% · other way -0.53% (n=12)
14AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -1.91–+0.31% · other way -1.62% (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 -1.4% · High-yield credit -0.6% · Financials -0.4% · Lockheed +0.4% · Northrop +0.3% · United Airlines -0.2%

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.

Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Volcker Saturday Night Special 1979-10 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Gabon coup d'etat 2023-08 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 2022-09 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Tin hits nominal record on LME above $48,000/t 2022-03 Burkina Faso coup d'etat 2022-01 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 European gas crisis intraday record spike 2021-10 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02 Myanmar military coup 2021-02 Mali coup d'etat 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Norilsk Nickel Arctic diesel spill 2020-05 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 Thailand 2014 military coup 2014-05 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
TSM TSMSHORT-2.2% · 5d -2.4%68%34 0.29✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+9.5% · 5d +1.6%66%18 0.28⚠ differs
RTX RTXSHORT-1.8% · 5d -0.9%65%40 0.28⚠ differs
AMD AMDSHORT-1.5% · 5d -1.2%66%36 0.23✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+2.9% · 5d +4.0%62%35 0.20✓ matches cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-2.3% · 5d -1.8%62%36 0.20✓ matches cascade
MU MULONG+2.0% · 5d -1.4% ↺ fades62%35 0.18⚠ differs
LMT LMTSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.4%60%40 0.18⚠ differs
MSTR MSTRLONG+3.2% · 5d -1.8% ↺ fades60%34 0.16⚠ differs
SOL SOLLONG+8.7% · 5d -5.9% ↺ fades60%24 0.15⚠ differs
30y yield DGS30LONG+14bp · 5d +6bp57%40 0.14✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+12bp · 5d +7bp57%40 0.14✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.2%58%34 0.12✓ matches cascade
QCOM QCOMSHORT-1.8% · 5d -2.0%58%34 0.11✓ 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.