What if rhodium melts up to a new record?
Thin, illiquid rhodium spot means a small autocatalyst shortfall produces a parabolic mark — the move is idiosyncratic to rhodium and PGM miners (Anglo Platinum, Sibanye), with copper a weak read-through. Rhymes with the 2020-21 rhodium melt-up to ~$29,000/oz on tight supply and the 2008 spike, both of which round-tripped violently. Forward angle: tightening gasoline-vehicle catalyst demand into EV penetration makes any spike more fragile than 2021 — fade rallies rather than chase.
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 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.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. Tightening autocatalyst rhodium supply triggers a parabolic squeeze past prior records on thin, illiquid spot trading. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Industrial demand ▲ — 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 | Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chart | Equity | ▲ +0.7% hist -2.03–+0.91% · other way +4.9% (n=12) |
| 2 | Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.3% hist -0.21–+0.3% · other way -0.49% (n=12) |
| 3 | Platinum XPTon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.2% hist -1.18–+0.5% · other way +1.16% (n=12) |
| 4 | Palladium XPDon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.2% hist -0.41–+0.33% · other way -1.46% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Why we may diverge from history
Trust history's FCX/XCU short: the bullish cascade conflates a thin rhodium squeeze with copper equities, but 12 recent copper-supply analogues reliably faded (0.83) — wrong asset, sell-the-shock dominates.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCX FCX | SHORT | -2.1% · 5d -1.7% | 62% | 40 | 0.22 | ⚠ differs |
| XPT XPT | SHORT | -1.2% · 5d -1.0% | 60% | 40 | 0.17 | ⚠ differs |
| High-yield credit HYG | SHORT | -0.4% · 5d -0.1% | 60% | 40 | 0.16 | · |
| Volatility VIX | LONG | +4.1% · 5d -0.7% ↺ fades | 55% | 40 | 0.08 | · |
| XCU XCU | SHORT | -0.4% · 5d -1.0% | 53% | 40 | 0.04 | ⚠ differs |
| Bitcoin BTC | LONG | +3.4% · 5d -1.8% ↺ fades | 51% | 39 | 0.02 | · |
| XPD XPD | SHORT | -0.5% · 5d -0.2% | 50% | 40 | 0.00 | ⚠ differs |
| Gold XAU | SHORT | -0.1% · 5d -1.1% | 45% | 40 | 0.00 | · |
| US dollar DXY | SHORT | -0.0% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades | 45% | 40 | 0.00 | · |
| 10y yield DGS10 | LONG | +3bp · 5d +2bp | 45% | 40 | 0.00 | · |
Why this probability
Rhodium is thin/illiquid and prone to squeezes; a fresh-record melt-up in 6mo plausible but not base-case. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.