🛢 Energy & Commodities risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if power shortages and logistics bottlenecks disrupt Zambian and DRC copper output?

Power shortages, regulatory disputes and logistics bottlenecks disrupt Zambian and DRC copper output, tightening African supply and lifting prices, an EM-supply-disruption scenario.

10%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 10% · 90% range 2–18% · 40 analogues · measured class growth 94% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — growth ≈1.8868/yr → 94% in 18 mo94%
Analyst prior · editorial share 8% of the class8%
Pooled · weight 87%10%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)10%
Published10%

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. Power shortages, regulatory disputes and logistics bottlenecks disrupt Zambian and DRC copper output, tightening African supply and lifting prices, an EM-supply-disruption scenario. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Copper ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Industrial demand ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ — 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▲ +3.7%
hist -0.32–+7.55% · other way -9.52% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.4%
hist -0.89–-0.28% · other way +1.25% (n=12)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -0.55–+0.46% · other way +1.94% (n=12)
4Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▲ +0.7%
hist -4.5–+1.76% · other way +7.57% (n=12)
5S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.7%
hist -1.47–+0.19% · other way +2.72% (n=12)
6Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.6%
hist -2.42–+0.71% · other way -0.42% (n=12)
7Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -0.52–+0.36% · other way +1.17% (n=12)
8MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -1.3–+3.31% · other way +21.27% (n=12)
9Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.3%
hist -0.49–+0.38% · other way +1.26% (n=12)
10Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -0.98–+0.16% · other way +6.78% (n=12)
11Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.3%
hist -2.67–+4.42% · other way -6.23% (n=9)
12High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.4%
hist -0.68–+0.07% · other way +1.46% (n=11)
13Lockheed LMT 📈 chartEquity▲ +0.3%
hist -1.18–+2.7% · other way -4.83% (n=12)
14Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.2%
hist -3.11–+1.08% · other way +9.98% (n=9)

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 -0.9% · Freeport (copper) +0.7% · High-yield credit -0.4% · Lockheed +0.3% · Northrop +0.2% · Financials -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 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 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 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 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 Mali coup d'etat 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 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 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Crude oil all-time high 2008-07 US airline stocks plunge ~40% on first trading day after 9/11 2001-09 Hong Kong defends the peg with sky-high HIBOR 1997-10 Tiananmen Square crackdown 1989-06 Chernobyl disaster 1986-04 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Reagan assassination attempt 1981-03 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 1979-12 Three Mile Island partial meltdown 1979-03
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+5.2% · 5d +8.5%70%29 0.35✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-2.3% · 5d -1.0%69%27 0.31⚠ differs
AMD AMDSHORT-2.0% · 5d -0.5%70%34 0.30✓ matches cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-2.3% · 5d -2.1%66%34 0.27✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+8.6% · 5d +1.4%63%13 0.23⚠ differs
TSM TSMSHORT-1.9% · 5d -2.5%65%28 0.22✓ matches cascade
XLK XLKLONG+0.8% · 5d -0.5% ↺ fades64%27 0.21⚠ differs
FCX FCXSHORT-4.4% · 5d -2.2%62%28 0.19⚠ differs
MSTR MSTRLONG+3.2% · 5d -2.5% ↺ fades62%27 0.17⚠ differs
ETH ETHSHORT-5.4% · 5d -6.3%62%19 0.17✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLLONG+4.6% · 5d -7.9% ↺ fades61%15 0.15⚠ differs
AVGO AVGOLONG+3.4% · 5d -1.3% ↺ fades57%25 0.13⚠ differs
Gold XAUSHORT-0.6% · 5d -0.8%57%27 0.12⚠ differs
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-2.8% · 5d -4.0%57%22 0.12✓ 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.