Every vector is the same three-part object. Nominal — what the system claims. Effective — what stress reveals. Gap — the divergence the conventional frame never prices. The whole instrument is a directed graph of pure functions over a day axis; nothing downstream is stored, everything is recomputed each frame.
The second axis: how each Gap behaves in time. reset — cyclical, accumulates then snaps closed and re-forms from a higher floor. oneway — a ratchet, the Gap only climbs; settled rails do not un-form. capped — real divergence, magnitude honestly withheld pending data, shown with a CAP marker. locked — permanent historical fact, inert to price or settlement.
Drawn at R₀ million barrels a day from 354, the reserve falls toward an operational floor near 300. When it arrives, the suppression instrument runs dry and Vector XII's paper crude reverts from $88 to the $150 physical — the cliff. Drag R₀ and the cliff date moves.
Five single-source nodes — F-35 attrition, Hersh's tactical-nuclear review, Chinese refueler tracking, the Asaluyeh intercepts, Bessent's clawback — render in violet. Toggle them to see how much of the cascade rests on data nobody has confirmed, and how much stands on the record alone.
The marginal divergence is the world. The aggregate Gap is not a side effect of the analysis — it is the state being measured. This instrument makes it draggable.
Configurations persist locally through the artifact storage layer. Three are seeded — Base Case, Strait Stays Closed, Deal Holds — and your own saves sit alongside them, private to your session.