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

What if the UK-EU customs deal collapses over Northern Ireland?

A Windsor Framework breakdown over Northern Ireland revives UK-EU trade friction — the hit lands on GBP, UK/Irish exporters and EU-UK-exposed names, NOT semiconductors, Nvidia and Alibaba as the cascade absurdly routes via a generic tech-tariff channel. Rhymes with the 2019-21 NI-protocol disputes that pressured sterling on hard-border fears. Transmission: bilateral UK-EU goods trade, Irish supply chains and GBP are the conduits; East-Asian tech is irrelevant. Forward angle: this is a regional regulatory-border spat, so size it as a GBP/UK-equity event, not a global supply-chain shock.

15%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 15% · 90% range 5–26% · 40 analogues · measured class trade_war 87% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — trade_war ≈1.3449/yr → 87% in 18 mo87%
Analyst prior · editorial share 17% of the class15%
Pooled · weight 87%16%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)16%
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 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. Windsor Framework talks break down over Northern Ireland, reviving hard-border and trade-friction fears. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Geopolitical risk ▲ · Trade tension ▲ · Risk appetite ▼ · Credit spreads ▲ — 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▲ +5.4%
hist -0.06–+7.49% · other way -3.55% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -3.0%
hist -1.92–-0.74% · other way +0.4% (n=12)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.1%
hist -1.35–-0.27% · other way +0.42% (n=12)
4Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.8%
hist -1.24–+0.33% · other way +3.07% (n=12)
5Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -1.19–+0.2% · other way +3.1% (n=12)
6S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.2%
hist -1.29–-0.21% · other way -0.7% (n=12)
7MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -1.02–-0.05% · other way +25.41% (n=12)
8TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -1.1–-0.34% · other way +3.31% (n=12)
9Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.1%
hist -4.18–+2.12% · other way -3.1% (n=11)
10AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -1.24–+0.74% · other way +0.74% (n=12)
11Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -1.28–+2.4% · other way +3.0% (n=12)
12Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -0.91–+0.02% · other way +4.09% (n=12)
13Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -0.86–-0.21% · other way +2.51% (n=12)
14ASML ASMLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -1.82–+0.18% · other way -0.48% (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 -2.1% · High-yield credit -0.8% · Financials -0.5% · Chinese yuan -0.5% · JPMorgan -0.4% · Aussie dollar -0.3%

Why we may diverge from history

Trust the cascade's SHORT AVGO/TSM/SMH: the gains are all April-2025 Liberation-Day windows where AI-capex demand overwhelmed the tariff hit — semis' trade-friction channel is real but swamped, history is 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.

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 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Smoot-Hawley clears the US House 1929-05 US-China extend tariff truce by another 90 days 2025-08 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 First Republic Bank seized and sold to JPMorgan 2023-05 Regional-bank panic deepens after Signature seizure 2023-03 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 US List 3 tariffs on $200B of Chinese goods finalized 2018-09 US Section 301 List 1 tariffs take effect on China 2018-07 China retaliates: $50B tariff list incl. soybeans 2018-04 US Section 232 steel & aluminum tariffs imposed 2018-03 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 Mexican peso crash on Trump 2016 win 2016-11 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 HYG record outflows in 2014 high-yield rout 2014-10 Mt. Gox collapse 2014-02 Mt. Gox halts withdrawals 2014-02 Cyprus deposit bail-in 2013-03 Spain requests EUR100bn bank bailout 2012-06 Bankia nationalised in Spain's banking crisis 2012-05 Portugal requests EU-IMF bailout 2011-04 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Greece first EU/IMF bailout 2010-05 Greece requests EU/IMF bailout 2010-04 Anglo Irish Bank nationalisation 2009-01 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorship 2008-09 IndyMac Bank seized by the Office of Thrift Supervision 2008-07 Northern Rock bank run 2007-09 American Home Mortgage bankruptcy 2007-08 Bear Stearns freezes redemptions on subprime hedge funds 2007-06 New Century Financial bankruptcy 2007-04 US airline stocks plunge ~40% on first trading day after 9/11 2001-09
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
COIN COINLONG+12.1% · 5d +7.7%82%10 0.51⚠ differs
ETH ETHSHORT-6.2% · 5d -7.1%70%17 0.32✓ matches cascade
MRVL MRVLSHORT-0.3% · 5d -2.4%67%39 0.27✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.2%66%37 0.26✓ matches cascade
RTX RTXSHORT-2.2% · 5d -1.9%64%39 0.24⚠ differs
AVGO AVGOLONG+2.7% · 5d -1.5% ↺ fades62%31 0.22⚠ differs
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-4.4% · 5d -4.2%62%22 0.20✓ matches cascade
AUD AUDSHORT-0.9% · 5d -0.1%61%38 0.19✓ matches cascade
TRY TRYSHORT-0.4% · 5d +0.8% ↺ fades62%38 0.18✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.8%59%39 0.16✓ matches cascade
KRW KRWSHORT-1.1% · 5d -0.1%58%38 0.15✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+2bp · 5d +4bp59%39 0.15·
SMH SMHLONG+1.0% · 5d -0.7% ↺ fades57%39 0.11⚠ differs
QCOM QCOMSHORT-1.5% · 5d -1.8%57%39 0.09✓ matches cascade

Why this probability

Windsor Framework operating; full customs collapse contrary to both sides' interests, unlikely. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.

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.