What if the SNB sells reserves to weaken a soaring franc?
The SNB dumping euros and dollars to cap franc strength is a tell that a safe-haven panic is already underway: the driver is the risk-off, so VIX spikes and high-beta equities/crypto are sold while risk-parity delevers. Rhymes with the franc-strength episodes around the 2011 eurozone crisis (pre-floor) and the August 2024 vol shock. Forward: SNB selling slows CHF's ascent but can't reverse a genuine flight-to-quality, so fade franc-weakness on intervention headlines.
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 risk-off shock. The SNB dumps euros and dollars to cap unwanted franc strength during a safe-haven panic, reigniting currency-manipulator accusations. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Geopolitical 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.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Vol | ▲ +6.8% hist +0.66–+7.46% · other way +3.23% (n=12) |
| 2 | Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -3.1% hist -1.71–-0.74% · other way -0.37% (n=12) |
| 3 | Tech sector XLK 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -2.1% hist -1.27–-0.31% · other way -0.34% (n=12) |
| 4 | S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -1.7% hist -0.91–-0.53% · other way +0.57% (n=12) |
| 5 | Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.6% hist -3.2–+0.31% · other way +0.89% (n=12) |
| 6 | MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.8% hist -2.14–+2.53% · other way +26.92% (n=12) |
| 7 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.4% hist -0.92–+0.25% · other way +2.23% (n=12) |
| 8 | Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon Hyperliquid | Crypto | ▼ -1.3% model prior · unmeasured |
| 9 | Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.2% hist -9.79–+1.08% · other way +5.13% (n=12) |
| 10 | Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.0% hist -5.1–+1.27% · other way +5.17% (n=12) |
| 11 | Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.1% hist -1.2–-0.09% · other way +4.75% (n=12) |
| 12 | Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.8% hist -0.22–+1.95% · other way -0.6% (n=12) |
| 13 | High-yield credit HYG 📈 chart | Rate | ▼ -0.8% hist -0.81–-0.11% · other way -0.32% (n=12) |
| 14 | AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.9% hist -1.51–+0.04% · other way -0.48% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Why we may diverge from history
Trust the cascade short on COIN/MSTR: the +15%/+14.5% history is all 2024-25 geopolitical-spike windows (Israel-Iran +63%, tariff +65%) where BTC's bull, not SNB FX action, drove the proxies — regime-biased.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH ETH | SHORT | -7.7% · 5d -6.4% | 75% | 24 | 0.37 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AVGO AVGO | LONG | +3.8% · 5d -0.6% ↺ fades | 65% | 28 | 0.29 | ⚠ differs |
| INTC INTC | SHORT | -2.5% · 5d -2.5% | 65% | 34 | 0.28 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AMD AMD | SHORT | -1.0% · 5d -0.6% | 67% | 34 | 0.26 | ✓ matches cascade |
| NDX NDX | SHORT | -0.3% · 5d -1.0% | 66% | 33 | 0.24 | ✓ matches cascade |
| TRY TRY | SHORT | -0.8% · 5d +1.1% ↺ fades | 68% | 28 | 0.24 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Gold XAU | LONG | +1.4% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades | 64% | 29 | 0.23 | ✓ matches cascade |
| MU MU | SHORT | -3.9% · 5d -2.7% | 64% | 33 | 0.23 | ✓ matches cascade |
| INR INR | SHORT | -0.3% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades | 65% | 28 | 0.23 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Volatility VIX | LONG | +3.8% · 5d +3.0% | 61% | 31 | 0.20 | ✓ matches cascade |
| High-yield credit HYG | SHORT | -0.4% · 5d -0.1% | 62% | 28 | 0.19 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Bitcoin BTC | SHORT | -4.2% · 5d -3.6% | 61% | 27 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
| SOL SOL | SHORT | -2.2% · 5d -8.1% | 62% | 21 | 0.15 | ✓ matches cascade |
| SMH SMH | LONG | +0.8% · 5d -0.5% ↺ fades | 60% | 29 | 0.15 | ⚠ differs |
Why this probability
SNB routinely sells FX to cap franc in haven episodes; conditional on a panic occurring. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.